The Cement Importers and Agents Association of The Gambia has vowed to put up a strong resistance against any attempt to use border settlements as cement re-bagging turfs.
The association claimed that it has received reports recently that some people have been making efforts to rejuvenate a Jammeh-era cement re-bagging depot around Farafenni.
“The association has no issues with re-bagging of cement in the area, but we also want to make it known that if they re-bag cement there, we will also follow their vehicles with our bags of cement and we will insist on paying only D30 as duty,” the association said.
Many of the country’s cement importers and agents have been bearing the brunt of the cement tariffs hike, virtually bankrupting them. The Gambia government introduced the levy more than a year ago.
The leading cement trade unions in the country made unsuccessful requests from the national police to stage protests or sit around the table with the authorities. Some of their members were rounded up after staging a protest in front of the Gambian leader at the National Assembly in Banjul sometime last year.
Currently, the Cement Importers and Traders Alliance (CITA) are locked in a legal battle with the state over the cement tariffs.
The increase of duty on a bag of imported cement from D30 to D180 has been blamed for the many cement shortages and price hikes across the country.
The government said its tariffs policy was introduced to protect local cement factories from imported cement, but none of these outfits produces cement as they rely on powder cement from overseas for re-bagging here.
