United Nations experts: Real estate is a sector that generates large revenues for the Houthis
English - Monday 27 February 2023 الساعة 08:21 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
The report of the United Nations experts on Yemen said that the Houthis continue to control legitimate and illegal sources of income, which are customs, taxes, zakat, non-tax revenues and illegal fees.
He added, "They imposed a (one-fifth) tax on many economic activities, including in the sectors of minerals, oil, water, and marine fishing, and the beneficiaries of the new tax are the Houthi family and many of their loyalists."
According to the report, real estate is another sector that generates significant revenues for the Houthis, who forcibly confiscated large areas of land and buildings during the reporting period.
The report indicated that the team of experts received information stating that the Houthis forcibly confiscated large areas of land and buildings, imposed restrictions on the sale, purchase, transfer and construction of property, and confiscated about 3,000 returned lands, valued at about 15 billion riyals, in the Al-Qasra area of the Beit Al-Faqih district.
The team also received information stating that the Houthis seized vast areas of land estimated at 80 billion riyals in the At-Tahita district of Al-Hodeidah Governorate, under the pretext that they are endowment lands, despite claims by local citizens of their ownership.
He pointed out that the Houthis have confiscated lands and buildings in other areas, which led to the evacuation of hundreds of civilian families and the loss of their livelihoods.
The report, which covers the period from December 2021 to November 30, 2022, indicated that the Houthis use various telecommunications companies to send millions of messages to request support and financial contributions for their war efforts.
The report confirmed that the Houthis obtained customs revenues from the port of Hodeidah from fuel ships of about 271.935 billion riyals for the period from April to November 2022, and in violation of the Stockholm Agreement, the Houthis do not use these revenues to pay public service salaries.
The UN experts report stated that despite receiving these tax revenues, the Houthis continue to collect illegal fees through their network of merchants.
The UN experts noted that sometimes the Houthis feign an artificial scarcity of fuel in order to create opportunities for their traders to sell oil on the black market and collect illegal fees from these sales.
