Mahra authorities refuse to transfer customs revenues to Aden Central Bank

MAHRA, Nov. 09 (YPA) -Local authorities loyal to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s eastern Mahra province on Saturday refused to transfer customs revenues from the Shahn border crossing with Oman to the Central Bank in Aden.

Thabet Awad Mubarak, General Manager of Shahn Land Port Customs, said customs employees had been threatened with dismissal and imprisonment by a local committee formed by the Mahra authorities.

In an “urgent and important” statement addressed to Abdulhakim Al-Qubati, head of the Pro-coalition Customs Authority, Mubarak said a committee headed by Badr Kalshat, the deputy governor of Mahra affiliated with Islah Party, along with several provincial officials, demanded that customs revenues be deposited into the local authority’s account, amid threats of dismissal and imprisonment for employees.

He explained that the threats came after the customs employees’ compliance with directives from the pro-coalition prime minister to deposit revenues into the Central Bank account in Aden.

He pointed out that the committee threatened to replace the current staff with new cadres who would implement the directives of the Governor of Mahra, and considered this a blatant interference in financial and administrative procedures aimed at undermining what is called the “Comprehensive Economic Reform Plan.”

This comes at a time when power plants in Mahra are running out of fuel, plunging the governorate into darkness, while the pro-coalition government has not instructed Aden Bank to purchase fuel for Mahra, Aden, and other coalition-held areas.

@E.Y.M