The tax situation in South Sudan is not clear because taxes are collected by many different institutions despite of its unification by the national finance ministry.
Development Policy Forum or DPF Core Team member Luka Tombekana Monoja said states, ministries and security personnel are still collecting taxes.He described the random collection of taxes as a salad that does not assure equal rights to the citizens of South Sudan.
Dr Monoja said the block grants to the states were equal and it was up to the governors to decide how to use them.
He said some ministries in the states do not know whether the grants arrived or not, and their projects remained on hold because money did not reach them.
Dr Monoja explained that it was not clear whether the money was sent directly to the governor, to the state Finance minister or to the concerned ministry.
He said this confusion is a stumbling block to development in the states.
Peter Biar Ajak recommended that South Sudan should structure the grants they send to the states to avoid dependency.
He said if the national ministry of Finance collects all the money and sends a share to the state, it becomes a serious problem because the state will wait only for money coming from the central government.
He added that the constitutional power governors have to get loans is an added problem.
The speakers made their remarks during the Development Policy Forum Discourse in Juba on Saturday.
The discourse brought together over 50 national and international experts and panellists.