The Fula Business Association and National Custom Brokers Association of Liberia (NCBAL) is calling on the government to get rid of the additional burden of third party engagement charges on imported commodities with the Metech Scientific.
According to them, the third party denies the government of its rightful revenue; the work done by Metech Scientific is an outsource role given by the LRA which further imposes extra burden on businesses, and there is one of two things LRA can do; either maintain Metech and get rid of Customs, or remove Metech Scientific and maintain Customs to do the job.
According to the Fula business president, for over two years, the company has been collecting 1.2 percent, and up to now there is no up-to-date documentary scanning machine as instructed by the World Trade Organizations (WTO), and the warehouses have not been constructed, among other things, for which the money is collected.
Addressing the press on March 30, 2024 at the office in central Monrovia, the Fula Business Association president, Mohammed Barry, said, surprisingly to the business community in 2021, Metech Scientific surfaced in the business community and moved the1.2 percent on imported goods to 3 percent, which they rejected.
“We expect them by now to construct a warehouse that will accommodate 50 containers; they have been collecting free money coupled with other challenges surrounding our engagements,” Barry said.
He added that the business community needs 24-hour service at the Freeport of Monrovia to enhance business activities, as Metech Scientific is the only office that receives documents, instead of three days maximum that the Government of Liberia requires, adding that it will take two to three weeks, which is a serious challenge for businesses.
“We are therefore calling on the Government of Liberia, through President Joseph Boakai, that there should be no business as usual; we don’t need Metech Scientific, because the Liberia Revenue Authority can perform that responsibility,” He narrated.
For his part, the Secretary General of the National Custom Brokers Association of Liberia, Morris Kiatamba, also decried the deplorable condition in the services of Metech Scientific, that the World Trade Organization frowns on third party arrangements.
“The Ministry of Commerce’s function is being overlooked by Metech Scientific, which has been doing just documentary inspection for the past two years without direct benefits to the business community,” he said.
Meanwhile, NCBAL believes that the process begins from the Ministry of Commerce and leads straight to the Liberia Revenue Authority, which significantly helps raise the lawful revenue of the Liberian Government on imported goods.
“Under this new administration of Joseph Boakai, we need to have no third party arrangement which the WTO detest; let’s deal with the transaction level value which is an approved global standard,” Kiatamba stressed.
Speaking on the shipping line, he mentioned that Liberia is the only country whose legal tender has been mollified for transactions in paying for services with these companies, seeing it as a technical barrier to trade, and called on the Government of Liberia to intervene.
