By Bida Elly David<\/p>\n
Some private water tanker operators have breached a recent order issued by Juba city mayor to reduce prices per barrel, demanding tax exemption and economic reforms by the council.<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, the mayor of Juba City Council, Michael Lado Allah-Jabu issued a deliberate order directing water suppliers to temporarily reduce the prices.<\/p>\n The order limited an amount of SSP 800 to areas within the town and SSP 1000 to areas on the outskirt of the town, per barrel.<\/p>\n This order comes after water tankers increased the price per barrel of water in the city, citing the depreciation of the South Sudanese Pounds against foreign currencies.<\/p>\n Despite the order, two third of the suppliers were discontented with the mayor\u2019s orders following the current economic recession accompanied by serious market inflation.<\/p>\n They are resolute to adhere to the mayor\u2019s order and they continued to charge their own price per barrel in the different residential areas.<\/p>\n However, Lemi Richard, a water supplier to Gudele two zone, reiterated the city council\u2019s hefty taxes, fuel cost per liter, and other vehicle mechanical costs as factors that constituted to violation of the orders.<\/p>\n He said the mayor issued the order without conducting market research or meeting the business unit through the state\u2019s chamber of commerce to hear their views.<\/p>\n \u201cWe buy fuel at a high cost; our trucks on several occasions undergo mechanical faults in the process of reaching water in some risky areas amid poor infrastructure. We will not reduce,\u2019\u2019 Lemi said.<\/p>\n Lemi condemned the City Council\u2019s tendency of issuing orders on traders without putting into consideration the angle of tax exemption to convince them to compromise the final consumers.<\/p>\n He underscored that some citizens who stand by their side commended the rise following the continuous challenges they face as far as the transportation of water is concerned.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are places that our trucks cannot pass especially Hai Kugi, Lokwilili, and others but we try our best despite the shortage of fuel we undergo but we are punished on top,\u2019\u2019 Lemi pointed out.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ali Mustafa, another tanker driver jagged that the suppliers have directly been affected by the ongoing inflation, but the authority doesn\u2019t consider their efforts in extending services to the people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current crisis is affecting all of us since we also need to eat. We can\u2019t eat water. We also buy food such as sauces, flour and sugar from other traders, who sell at higher prices so why only us,\u2019\u2019 he inquired.<\/p>\n Mustafa called on the city council to give time as the Country still fights to impose economic reforms to the best of its capacity adding that inflation won\u2019t be combated if the economic sector remains paralyzed.<\/p>\n However, he also urged the business sector, as well as the state and the national chambers of commerce to work towards the interest of traders, before they opt for a strike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bida Elly David Some private water tanker operators have breached a recent order issued by Juba city mayor to reduce prices per barrel, demanding tax exemption and economic reforms by the council. Last week, the mayor of Juba City Council, Michael Lado Allah-Jabu issued a deliberate order directing water[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/water.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14500,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14496\/revisions\/14500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}