Ver Angola

Trade

Antonio Estote: reduction of customs taxes on the basic food basket was right to contain social dissatisfaction

The angolan economist António Estote considered last Friday that the measure of suspension of customs tariffs on the products of the basic food basket aimed to reduce the generalized increase in prices and contain social dissatisfaction, in a pre-election year.

:

António Estote was commenting to Lusa news agency, the Government announcement regarding the temporary reduction of customs costs in the importation of rice, pork meat, beef jerky, chicken thigh, corn grain, cooking oil and powder milk, made last week.

For the specialist, this measure should be accompanied by a set of other more structural measures, of which he highlighted the increase in local production.

According to the economist, also considering social issues, looking at the "generalized social dissatisfaction, due to this issue of rising prices, which can then turn into political instability," the Government was forced to take this measure.

"Even because we are living in a pre-election period, then, this measure also aims to ensure political stability and reduce the level of social dissatisfaction, that is, it aims to achieve three dimensions, the economic one, which is to try to contain the increase in the general price level, the social dimension, to see if it reduces social dissatisfaction, and political, not to be used as an instrument for political instability," he mentioned.

In addition to the issue of increasing local production, António Estote defended the need to implement inspection, which is also "a critical point for the success" of these measures.

"Because currently if we look at the laws that allow the fixing of prices, the margins for each agent, operator - we are talking about the importer, wholesaler and retailer - in some products there is a lot of speculation, then, even if this measure was not adopted, there is always room for supervision and supervision has to be permanent," he considered.

In an analysis of the impact of this measure in the lives of citizens, António Estote said that it will be residual, but for imports as a whole "there is some impact.

"I did the calculations, without considering some variables, such as customs cost and bank expenses, for example, for the kilogram of sugar, the probable impact will be between ten kwanzas to 20 kwanzas, which is residual, but if we are talking about the import as a whole it has some impact," he stressed.

According to the economist, this measure may serve as a rehearsal for another "bolder", as some experts advocate, for the exchange rate subsidy of the basic food basket products without local production.

"But naturally there has to be another complementary measure, which is: we are going to subsidize as long as the import is made with documentary credit, so that we don't turn importers into kinguilas [foreign currency sellers], because then it will be a business of foreign currency bought cheap in the State to sell expensive in the Kifangondo Martyrs," he pointed out.

When asked to comment on whether the measure was overdue, António Estote is of the opinion that it was influenced by the lack of "quality of information for decision making".

"At the end of last year, beginning of this year, we saw entities linked to the government, here I cite the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior, and the governor of the National Bank of Angola, José de Lima Massano, in public interviews, saying that the reduction of imports was being justified by the increase in local production," he said.

"And this information caused a delay in making the decision. In fact, the import reduction was not compensated to the necessary extent by local production. So, what happened: the importation of goods was reduced, the stock was reduced and today we have shortages of basic necessities," he added.

Related

Permita anúncios no nosso site

×

Parece que está a utilizar um bloqueador de anúncios
Utilizamos a publicidade para podermos oferecer-lhe notícias diariamente.