Sirleaf Admin.: Heartless Regime, Vulnerable And Hapless Citizens

Finance Minister Amara Konneh - Punishing citizens with unjustifiable tax is his priority

One of the many orotundity comments President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made recently during her interaction at the CENPID hatai center in Monrovia was to urge Liberians to love their country. She chided her critics saying that they criticize too much for everything. For her, the way to make Liberia move forward was to sing praises on radio, television, newspaper, internet, etc., and not “talking bad, bad things about the government…” as she put it.

When I watched the video posted by journalist Mamadee Diakite, my heart nearly stop pumping blood through my veins. I could not imagine that Madam Sirleaf of all people would think that because Liberians are talking about the errors of the regime the country would remain dormant, stagnant and dull. I have heard and read many unintelligible comments from people, but to hear our president think of us so low and condescendingly is worrisome and shameful.

How in the world the President would expect Liberians to rain praises on her government when she and her Finance Minister, Amara Konneh, are carving administrative policies and regulations with the sole intent to punish Liberians. For instance, think about the Finance Minister’s “Administrative Regulation”, which instituted punitive tax regime for “vehicles ten years or older”. Take note, the government is not talking about vehicles that are not “road worthy”, it is talking about old vehicles. What remains unanswered is who does this law benefit? That brings me to my presentation of the third fact, when the government of Liberia overcharged my Nissan Pickup recently at the Freeport of Monrovia, in a bid to impose a “punitive tax” on my four vehicles.

Fact III: Over-taxing My Nissan Pickup
Before discussing the third fact, let’s review previous facts. We have known that the government of Liberia over-taxed my Ford Explorer. Currently, the Government of Liberia owes me $832.07 on the Ford, which represents the excess of 111.49 on 363.39, the 32.88, the extra 469.80, and the excess of 217.90 on the first 469.80 which the Customs Collectors claimed was 10% of $2519.00 (The 10% should have been $251.90).

 

The government also owes me and additional 549.57. This amount is the extra money my wife paid to the Central Bank of Liberia at the insistence of the Customs Collectorate at the Freeport of Monrovia. The total amount I should have paid was $546.30, which included a 10% duty and another 20% punitive tax. Instead, Customer Collector Amanda “Roberts” charged my wife $1095.87, which included an excess of $549.57. So if you combine what the government over charged my wife on our Ford Explorer ($832.07) and what it over charged on our Toyota ($549.57), the total over-tax amount for the first two vehicles is put at $1,381.64. This is just for the first two vehicles. Now let’s look at how the government over taxed my Nissan Pickup, then we will discuss my Ford Contour later.

My Nissan Pickup was old and found itself in the 20% punitive tax range. It is a 1988 model. This vehicle is in perfect shape, as all the others. In fact, I was driving the Nissan in the United States without problem. But for the government of Liberia, it does not matter how road worthy a vehicle is, once it is older than ten years, the owner must be punished for bringing it to Liberia. So my wife and I were punished by our own government for our vehicles. But in the process of punishing us, the customs officers stationed at the Freeport of Monrovia over taxed us. We paid twice for the Nissan Pickup 05 TN.

On December 27, 2013 my wife was told to pay the amount of $454.24 to represent a General Sales Tax (GST) of $192.68 and a punitive tax of $249.10. It was obvious that my wife paid because from the previous experience, she dare ask how they levied the charges. Having presented the flag receipt at the Freeport Customs Collectorate for approval to get our Nissan out of the Port, Amanda Roberts did the obvious. She told my wife that there would be additional tax levy. And she did.

Then on January 2, 2013, Amanda levied an addition punitive tax and general sales tax that my wife had already paid. She charged $533.07 punitive tax and $34.87 for GST. Although she mustered the courage to put a faint protest, my wife succumbed and paid the extra tax. The container was at the verge of running into storage. So the prudent thing my wife did was to cooperate and pay any and all unreasonable and over taxation just to clear the container to avoid storage. It is the storage that containers accumulate that made a lot of people to lose their containers and their contents to the Freeport of Monrovia. We were not about to be this kind of victim.

Now here is the crafty thing the customs officers did. They did not print out the value of the Nissan as they did with the Ford Explorer and Toyota Pickup. They simply levied the taxes without telling my wife how they are levying the punitive 20%. According to the protocol, they should be charging based on the value of vehicle. But this time around, Amanda and her office staff thought it was fine to simply levy the tax anyhow. But if you check the value of the Nissan .5 TN 1988 on Kelly Blue Book, you would realize its value is at $940.00. Therefore, a ten percent general tax would have been $94.00. And additional 20% punitive tax would have been $188.00. Hence the total amount we should have been charged was $282.00 to have the vehicle cleared. Instead, the government charged us $861.28. If you subtracted $282 from what we paid, the government owes us an excess of 579.28.

There are several things that came into play here. Firstly, the Ministry of Finance issued the Administrative regulations on October 14, 2013 and began implementing it on December 8, 2013, that is within 24 days without sufficient publicity and education. That regulation was not published on Internet or in the local newspaper for everyone to know. It was surreptitiously passed onto the customs officers at ports of entry. I just wonder how the Minister of Finance expected us in the diaspora to know that he had passed a regulation that went into effect within 24 hours.

The other point is, I would think the government of Liberia should be concerned with “road worthy” vehicles. They should ensure the vehicle is good enough to put on the streets. That is very important! The age of the vehicle does not have anything to do with its road worthiness. Our vehicles were not only serviced before putting them on the container to be taken to Liberia, I personally drove them for months to ensure that they are good enough to drive in Monrovia. One of reasons I did that was the kind of roads in Liberia. If the vehicles were not road worthy, it would be a wasteful venture to pay money to transport a vehicle that would not last for two months and break down. That is key as well.

In the third facts presentation with documents and receipts, I will show you how Amanda and the Freeport Customs Collectorate levied taxes twice on our Ford Contour. I will present the facts for the public to know we are being mistreated while we are trying to contribute to the development agenda of our country.