Lifting of import taxes fails to reduce food prices in Cameroon
Almost two months after the Cameroonian government lifted import taxes on rice, flour and fish in response to riots caused in part by high food prices, consumers are still paying the same, and in some cases more.
Photo: David Hecht/IRIN
“We are fighting to ensure prices remain low while operating within the constraints of a free market,” the spokesman for the minister of trade, Alphonse Ateba Ndoumou, told IRIN.
The 5% import tax was lifted on 7 March after the government made a deal with wholesalers. “They agreed to lower prices if we lifted taxes,” Ateba Ndoumou said.
“The problem now is the retailers,” he said. “They have not respected the deal.”
The government closed down 50 retail shops in the commercial capital Douala and the capital Yaoundé which were selling rice at the old price. But retailers with whom IRIN spoke said they were still waiting for the wholesalers to drop their prices.
