Simon Akuei Deng, the Commissioner General of National Revenue Authority [Photo: courtesy]

The head of the South Sudan Revenue Authority has given revenue staff two weeks to remove their personal details from company registrations or face legal consequences.

The directive follows a discovery that one staff member had used his information to register more than 300 companies, an act the Commissioner General described as a serious breach of tax law.

Simon Akuei Deng, the Commissioner General, said employees found to have their details linked to registered companies after the two-week deadline will face disciplinary action.

“It is criminal to use your details to register companies. This should stop as of today, the 2nd of June, 2025. Any staff that is found to be using these or their details to register taxpayers must be subjected to disciplinary measures,” he said.

Deng added that the practice goes against ethical standards and will no longer be tolerated.

“All staff are hereby directed to review and correct any instances where their personal information, such as phone numbers or email addresses, may have been used to register taxpayers,” he warned.

“These ratifications must be completed within two weeks from the date of this memo,” he added.

He said the goal is to improve operations and enforce professionalism within the Revenue Authority.

Business owners were also warned to update their tax account details within the two-week period.

The Commissioner said anyone who continues to register businesses using a revenue staff member’s personal details will face legal penalties.

“Any business entity, organization, or individual that may continue to register tax accounts using an employee’s personal details will be in violation of the law and shall be subjected to penalties.

“These are things that people should take seriously. We must reform the tax sector. We must reform this sector so that we can be accurate,” he said.

The South Sudan Revenue Authority has been trying to strengthen revenue collection, especially as income from oil, the main source of the government’s budget, has declined due to the conflict in Sudan.

Reports indicate that non-oil revenue collection continues to face challenges, including inadequate record-keeping, manual systems prone to corruption, and insufficient oversight.