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Friday, March 29, 2024
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1 million EUR, amount of VAT paid to Algeria on local purchases of goods to camp populations

Algeria continues to impose taxes on European humanitarian aid for sequestered people in Tindouf, said the European Commission. "Until the beginning of 2016, purchases for distribution in the form of donations to Saharawi refugees, facts on Algerian territory, were still subject to local tax, which varies depending on products," said the European Commissioner for humanitarian aid Christos Stylianides.

 



In reply to a written question from a group of MEPs on "unacceptable" nature of this practice on the part of the Algerian authorities, the European Commissioner said that between 2010 and 2014, the European Commission has assessed the amount of VAT paid to Algeria on local purchases of goods to the populations of the Tindouf camps at one million euros, or an average of 200,000 euros per year, equivalent to 2% of the annual amount of aid provided by the European Union.

In their question MEPs Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP) Patricija Sulin (PPE), Ingeborg Gräsle (PPE), Frédérique Ries (ALDE), Igor Soltes (Greens / ALE) questioned the European Commission on the massive embezzlement by the Polisario of European humanitarian aid for sequestered people in Tindouf revealed by the report of the European anti-fraud Office (OLAF).

 They say that at a hearing of the Committee on Budgetary Control of the European Parliament in July 2015, the Director General of the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission DG ECHO revealed that Algeria taxed 5 % 10 million euros of humanitarian aid paid annually to the Tindouf camps and acknowledged that "this is unacceptable."

They add that according to an estimate made in the last 30 years, the EU has paid between 10 and 15 million EUR in taxes to Algeria.

- News and events on Western Sahara issue / Corcas-

 

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