Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state’s Minister of finance has complained that citizens are not paying their household tax, after summoning the state’s five county commissioners for an update on its collection.

Madut Santino Deng reported in an interview with Radio Tamazuj that the tax collectors are doing well but complained that many citizens are refusing to pay and angry with the government. However, he denied that arrests have been made over the tax.

"The meeting with the commissioners including (Aweil) town mayor is about the household taxes.  We want to find out how much money has been collected and what challenges the tax collectors face during the work and also to brief ourselves about the rumour of arrest.  So I found that no one is arrested because in collection, no law arrests people, but law calls to pay,” the minister disclosed.

Madut claimed that this money is to be used for the development and running of basic services like road construction, schools and hospitals and explained that any confusion over their purpose was initiated by local chiefs during registration.

“What brought confusion is the local chiefs and it was started during the registration period, they thought it was for a joke and now some of them are getting back to reality because they want to maintain their positions.  Some registered all the people they lead, including the very vulnerable people to protect their leadership and that is why many people failed to pay."

The minister urged the chiefs to make sure that all those registered should pay household taxes without failure.

The minister’s comments were in relation to reports that a number of people were arrested in some of the counties.  Seven local chiefs and two tax collectors were allegedly arrested in Wanyjokin late April until the 4^th May over issues surrounding the payment of household taxes.

Radio Tamazuj photo: NBeG commissioners