Ivory Coast's Ouattara Calls for Halt of Tax Payments During Bank Closure
"The government asks taxpayers to withhold payment of taxes" until the offices of the Central Bank of West African States are reopened, said Guillaume Soro, Ouattara's prime minister, in a statement published in several local newspapers today, including Abidjan-based Le Patriote.
The central bank, which covers eight countries and is based in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, ordered the Ivorian sites closed Jan. 27, two days after Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president who refuses to cede power to Ouattara, seized them.
The institution said on Dec. 23 it no longer recognizes Gbagbo as president and will only allow people appointed by Ouattara to withdraw funds. After the decree, Ouattara claimed that Gbagbo was still able to take out as much as 150 million euros ($205 million).
Governor Philippe-Henri Dacourey-Tabley, an Ivorian, resigned from office without giving a reason Jan. 22, and Jean- Baptiste Compaore, his deputy, was named interim governor. Ouattara is the internationally recognized winner of the disputed Nov. 28 election. Gbagbo refuses to leave office, alleging voting fraud in several northern regions where Ouattara had majorities.
Panel Named
The African Union named the leaders of South Africa, Tanzania, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso to a panel tasked with finding a solution to that is entering its third month, Noureddine Mezni, spokesman for Chairman Jean Ping, said in Addis Ababa today.
Gbagbo's seizure of the offices was "meant to avoid a halt to the activities of banking and financial organizations," said Desire Dallo, his finance minister, in a Jan. 28 letter to Jacob Amematekpo, head of the country's association of banks and financial organizations.
The Dakar-based bank's move to close the offices may "cause a chain reaction with irreversible negative consequences on the entire national economic system," Dallo said, according to a transcript of the letter published in Le Patriote today. Gbagbo's administration "will not tolerate any hindrance to the functioning of the banking system," he said.
Ouattara's finance ministry said institutions will face "national, regional and international sanctions" if they collaborate with the central bank offices during the closure, according to a separate statement published in newspapers.
To contact the reporters on this story: Pauline Bax and Olivier Monnier in Abidjan via Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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