Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
Tensions have escalated between the Yemeni government and the local authorities in Al-Mahra governorate (eastern Yemen) over financial resources, following disagreements regarding revenues from the Shahn customs crossing on the border with Oman.
Prime Minister Salem bin Buraik sent an official memorandum requesting the chairman and members of the Presidential Leadership Council to urgently intervene and compel the governor of Al-Mahra to immediately and fully implement the economic reform plan and related decisions.
The Prime Minister stated that the governor of Al-Mahra has refused to implement government decisions related to the national economic reform plan, describing this as a deliberate obstruction of the central government’s efforts to achieve financial and economic stability in the country.
This comes as part of the government’s efforts to unify and activate public revenues and improve the state’s financial performance, in accordance with the comprehensive economic reform plan approved by the Presidential Leadership Council and the Council of Ministers.
Earlier, the director of the Shahn Customs Crossing accused the deputy governor of Al-Mahra of storming the customs facility and threatening employees, saying that if they did not deposit revenues into the local authority’s account, he would replace them. The local authority denied the accusation, stating that coordination is ongoing with the government regarding local revenues to cover service sector obligations.
The Presidential Leadership Council’s decision on the comprehensive economic reform plan requires local authorities to consolidate financial revenues into the Central Bank in Aden and to refrain from interfering in the work of customs crossings.
The presidential decision came amid months-long delays in salary payments and a decline in financial revenues since the suspension of oil exports in 2022.
