50 types of fees, most of which are not deposited in government accounts
English - Saturday 24 December 2022 الساعة 04:50 pm
Mocha, NewsYemen, exclusive:
A meeting of the directors of the financial and zakat authorities in the liberated governorates revealed that one of the main challenges to collecting local revenues is the increasing number of collection agencies in the governorates that do not deposit the collected revenues into the agreed-upon government accounts.
Participants in the meeting organized by the Political Development Forum and the Berghof Foundation in the capital, Aden, last week, with funding from Germany, emphasized that the problem of revenues not reaching the state treasury is the dependence on contractors.
Revenue collection has already increased by more than 30 percent compared to 2021, in the first half of this year, according to the Central Bank of Yemen Aden report.
Meeting participants indicated that another challenge identified related to fees that were collected, often incorrectly, by various security units that did not receive proper training or have a mandate to do so.
Participants stressed the need to unify all these security agencies and place them under government control in order to protect taxpayers and ensure effective revenue collection.
According to the outcomes of the meeting, the other main challenge relates to the erosion of income from fixed fees. There are more than fifty types of these fees, such as fees for work permits or street cleaning services, and many of them have not been modified.
Participants in the meeting also stressed the need to improve communication between the Ministry of Local Administration in Aden and the authorities in the governorates and districts. They have strong hopes that through regular meetings the information gap between the ministry and the local authorities can be bridged.
Participants highlighted the legal confusion that exists around local governance, as the Yemeni Local Authority Law conflicts with other ministries' legislation.
