Maputo, 3 May (AIM) – Mozambican vegetable oil refineries have imported over 1.3 million tonnes of crude cooking oil, over the last eight years, budgeted at around 88.7 billion meticais (about 1.4 billion dollars).
According to the Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, who was speaking at a seminar on the value chain in the production of cooking oil and soaps, held on Thursday, in Maputo, “we want the money used for imports to be used for our economic activity, possibly to promote the production of oilseeds and other activities, creating more jobs, and contributing more taxes.”
The seminar is also held to respond to a research on the recent study carried out by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), on the impact of exemptions from Value Added Tax (VAT) on the end consumer.
“We want companies that extract the oil from the raw material to refine it and put the product on the market at an accepted value, maintaining the population’s consumption”, Moreno said.
The Minister believes that the country has great agricultural potential and an agro-industry to boost the Programme to Industrialize Mozambique (PRONAI).
“The government wants to use VAT exemptions to boost industry. We don’t want to think of exemptions just as a way of fuelling trade, we don’t want operators to settle for it”, the minister said.
For her part, CIP researcher, Estrela Charles, said that the study’s objectives included finding out whether the VAT exemption had a positive impact on the final consumer.
She recalled that VAT on vegetable oil was lifted in 2007. The exemption was in force until December 2023, when it lapsed. Since then VAT has been charged on vegetable oil at the standard rate of 16 per cent.
“Given this situation”, said Charles, “CIP believes that after all these years, it is important to carry out a study to find out the impact of these exemptions on the final consumer and the country’s economy.”
The Secretary General of the Association of Oil Industries (AIOPA), João Matlombe, said that one of the industry’s many challenges is to increase the production of local raw materials and to evaluate non-fiscal barriers aimed at protecting national production.
On the other hand, he proposes the introduction of measures to ban the export of the sector’s raw materials over a 10-year period.
“AIOPA proposes reducing the rate of smuggled products in the country by improving inspections and implementing a five-year transition plan aimed at increasing and absorbing the production of local raw materials”, he said.
(AIM)
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