Yemeni legitimate government’s Economic Committee (EC) revealed Monday that port revenues have amounted to $43 million in four months, since the implementation of the government decision, 49.

The decision provides for the collection of tax and customs revenues on oil shipments to pay salaries for employees. It has been met with Houthi intransigence before being ratified.

In an official statement, the Committee explained that the total revenues from Yemeni ports amounted to 24.6 billion Yemeni riyals as preliminary results since the implementation of the government decision late June.

It added that about $15 million, equivalent to nine billion riyals of the total revenue, is reserved in a special account in the Central Bank in Hodeidah, based on a previous initiative that was overlooked by the United Nations.

Humanitarian aid shipments have been exempted by about 464 million riyals (less than $1 million), the committee said.

In June, the government started collecting taxes, customs duties and other revenues on oil derivatives, in an attempt to supplement the state budget and pay employees' salaries.

Despite the facilitation provided by the government for fuel vessels to enter the Houthi militias-run Hodeidah port, yet the group was keen to prevent shiploads in an effort to sustain the fuel crisis and trade in the resulting humanitarian situation.

In a previous statement, the Committee accused the pro-Iranian militias of causing the suspension of fuel shipments onboard ships off the port of Hodeidah, delaying entry procedures to the port and unloading the cargo.

It said the militias caused eight fuel tankers to park in front of Hodeidah port by preventing traders from submitting documents and requests for government authorization from the EC's technical office.

It also accused the group of using “terrorism, the threat of imprisonment, confiscation of funds and the cessation of commercial activity against merchants complying with government decisions.”

The militias' actions “translate their insistence on boosting the activity of the black market it manages to finance its activities and accumulate the citizens’ sufferings.”

Houthis have been “evading the application of banking controls to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and maintain currency stability and clearly obstructing government and UN envoy’s efforts to pay salaries for civilians,” the EC noted.
A.Awsat