Hon. Angelina Teny, the Minister of Interior attends a conference on Peace and Security in Juba, on October 25. - Credit: Moses Awan/Eye Radio

Interior Minister Angelina Teny raised concerns about the parliament’s 50 percent increment on the cost of passports in the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget, suggesting that a 20 percent addition instead.

On Monday, the legislature passed the budget with heavy increase in taxes, fees, and other levies across various sectors, allegedly in line with the Public Financial Management and Accountability Act (PFMAA) of 2011.

The Specialized Committee on Finance and Economic Planning increased the fee for regular adult passports by 50% from $100 to $150, while the regular passport for minors would be at $100.

The finance committee also proposed setting the business passport fee at $300 and the fee for special, diplomatic, and official passports at $250. Identity cards and national certificates would each cost $5.

Meanwhile, individuals seeking to become South Sudanese by virtue of Naturalization by Marriage will pay $400, Naturalization by Resident Certificate will be $1,000 and Naturalization to Aliens will be $1,500.

Speaking during the deliberation, Angelina said her ministry initially recommended a 20 percent increment, although it had not been considered.

“These prices are not decided by the Ministry of Interior, it is actually together the non oil revenue agencies that decide and in consultation,” she said.

“In fact, we were proposing that maybe we raise the price of the passport not by 50% to be 150 but maybe by 20% to be 120 but of course it is not up to us, we are only a collecting agency.”

Nyayang Johnson, a member of parliament from the SPLM Party List requested the house to reconsider the decision to increase the civil registration and passport fees

Ms. Johnson called for reduction of the cost, stressing that such high costs for essential documentation would be unaffordable for many South Sudanese.

“The proposed fees for passports and nationality documents are unfortunately in US dollars. I don’t know where our owned citizens are expected to get dollars to obtain their passports,” she said.

“Madam Speaker, immigration has suggested that the adult passport fee be set at 150 USD. In the fiscal year 2023-2024, it was 100 dollars. Suddenly, it has increased to 150 dollars, does this mean we will keep adding to the passport fee every fiscal year?”

“We need to maintain the previous rate. We can’t charge minors 100 dollars for a passport. We need to set an example: in neighboring countries like Kenya, a regular passport costs only 7,500 Kenyan shillings, which is about 75 dollars.”

The increment on passports and civil registration was made despite suggestions to make civil registration affordable and accessible to citizens to combat statelessness.

In October, European Union’s Deputy Head of Mission in South Sudan Lothar Jasckhe encouraged the government to make nationality registration affordable and accessible to its citizens to combat statelessness.

Mr. Jasckhe – speaking in Juba at the launch of nationality documentation and mitigation of risk of statelessness – noted the incrementally high legal registration cost which an ordinary citizen can barely afford.

He urged the government to reduce the fees to enable the citizens to acquire citizenship and record their data, saying it is critical for equal resource distribution in the country.

He appeals to the government’s directorate of civil registry, nationality and passport to operationalize its systems in a way that ensures that South Sudanese are free from the risk of being stateless.