(Business in Cameroon) - FCfa 756 million. Such is the amount of the tax on rubble transport as part of the construction of the Kribi-Lolablé motorway that the Kribi 1 borough demands from the Chinese company CHEC. This dispute led to the seizure, by the local mayor, of the 22 trucks belonging to this company who also built the deep water port of Kribi.

The management of CHEC maintain that the contract signed with the public Cameroonian authorities stipulates that all works will be exempted from the payment of taxes. False! Replies the Kribi 1 Town hall. According to the mayor and his deputies, only taxes to be paid to the State are concerned by the exemption which CHEC mentioned, not local taxes to be collected by the borough.

Therefore, Mayor Yves Martial Madiba claims that “no truck will be released from the borough impound if we do not receive the full amount claimed in arrears”. Indeed, the tax demanded by the borough, we learned corresponds to FCfa 3,000 per truckload of rubbles taken in the borough. The public authorities of the city of Kribi initiated discussions between the two parties, to reach an agreement between the town hall executive management and China Harbour Engineering Corporation.

BRM