Yemenat – Sanaa
Customs centers affiliated with the Sana’a Authority are witnessing a strike and sit-ins by importers.
Activist Khaled Al-Arassi said in a post on his Facebook account that the strike, which he described as comprehensive, was due to raising customs duties by 100%. Based on a previous decision issued by the Minister of Finance, Rashid Abu Lahoum, stipulating that the deadline given to merchants be to divert imports through the port of Hodeidah.
Al-Arassi stated that Minister Abu Lahoum presses from time to time to implement his decision with the justification that the six-month deadline granted to merchants to transfer imports through the port of Hodeidah has expired.
It was common for the importer to pay 50% of the customs duties at the government-controlled ports in Aden, with the rest of the percentage to be completed in the customs control centers established by the Sana’a government.
Raising customs duties to 100% on goods coming overland to areas controlled by the Sana’a Authority will lead to raising the prices of those materials, as they will become 150%.
Al-Arassi believes that the decision will lead to the displacement and alienation of capital and cause economic and commercial stagnation through an integrated program implemented by five parties, including the Minister of Finance.
This measure is consistent with arbitrary measures taken by the Minister of Industry and Trade, Muhammad Al-Mutahhar, against many merchants, including obstructing the renewal of commercial records, canceling the trademarks of some, and registering the trademarks of others in violation of the law because they conflict with the rights of registered trademarks, which led to the migration of some people. Money to neighboring countries. This matter was raised by Sheikh Sultan Al-Sami before the House of Representatives as part of a comprehensive report on the corruption of Minister Al-Mutahhar, and a parliamentary committee was formed for it, but its sessions were adjourned without giving reasons, a week after it began the investigation.
Al-Arassi asks: Which is more dangerous, the arrival of goods from Yemeni governorates and moving the wheel of trade, or the rise in external debt from seven billion to forty-three billion with the approval and signature of those who represent us and still represent us in this regard because of you..?