By: Sulayman Waan
Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, has said that the Banjul Breweries Limited tax increment was only on the alcohol unit and said Banjul Breweries will not be close down.
Couple of weeks, Banjul Breweries Company Limited laid off 18 workers putting other 150 workers at risk of losing their jobs as a result of government 75 % tax hike on excise duty.
Speaking during a public lecture of International Monetary Fund yesterday at a local hotel, Mamburay Njie said technicians from his ministry did a thorough regional study before implementing the tax policy on the company.
He said: “The tax on Banjul Breweries is not on all breweries, it’s only based on the alcohol unit and the technical people of the ministry made a thorough regional study, we were having the lowest tax. For decade we have been charging for 10%.”
According to him, people would take this issue from different perspectives but for him he did not support the idea of raising taxes.
“This particular corporate body (alcohol unit) enjoyed facilities, tax breaks for decade but that doesn’t mean they have to come and pay for it. We have being talking to them to look at the figures,” he added.
There had being pronouncements that they (the company’s management) are going to close the company but as long as we are concern up yesterday (Monday) they are not going to close the company and they will not dismiss their staff, he affirmed.
“The alcohol could be deterrent in the tourism industry because we have underage people who are abusing the alcohol. However, hopefully after this exercise we will bring regulations to ensure the underage will not get access to the alcohol,” he said.
He said the propose closure of the company is system in place and government is open to dialogue with the company’s management to make sure the issue is resolve accordingly.
“This is the first step that raising the tax went through a debate at the National Assembly,” he revealed.
However, he said his ministry is negotiating with the ministry of Trade and the company to ensure the issue is address but he stood firmly to clarify that his ministry didn’t take a unilateral decision on the tax exercise imposed on the factory.