Niger Govt Suspends Import Tax on Rice for 3 Months

The government of Niger has suspended for three months all duties and taxes on the importation of rice in order to face the price hike of all cereals in the country, APA learned Monday from an official source.

In a broadcast intervention Monday, the government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said “the government decides to reinforce stocks on the markets and to soften significantly the drastic rise of prices.”

As it is already the case for millet, sorghum and corn, the Niger government has decided to lift import duty or tax on rice. But the exemption on rice will last for only three months, Ben Omar said.

“The State will buy rice on the international markets to help properly the underprivileged population,” he added.

The Nigerien government will determine the market price of rice in collaboration with the economic operators benefiting from this exceptional scheme, he said.

For some time now, the prices of all cereals have been skyrocketing in all the regions of Niger, bringing the consumer organizations to fear a new crisis of high cost of living like in 2005.

According to investigations carried out by the government and the civil society, no shortage of stocks caused this hike as the markets are regularly supplied to date.

Ben Omar asserted that no situation of retention or dissimulation of stock was noted.

“The rise is related to several factors primarily the fall of rice production at world level, a weak production of corn in the sub region. This situation concerns the whole sub region and has almost the same characteristics in all States,” he explained.

Source African Press Agency

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