ECOWAS Council urges Liberia to pay its levy arrears

Accra, Jan 19, GNA - Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Regional Cooperation and NEPAD, has appealed to Liberia to work hard to offset debts it owed the ECOWAS Secretariat on the community levy. He, however, said the Secretariat was willing to waive part of the arrears of the levy accumulated for the past 25 years because of Liberia's political and economic crisis, a release issued by the Ministry of NEPAD on Monday said in Accra.

Dr Apraku, who is also the Chairman of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, made the appeal when he led a delegation from the ECOWAS Secretariat including Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of ECOWAS to Monrovia, Liberia to hold discussions with Mr Gyude Bryant, Chairman of Liberia's Interim Government. During the discussion in that country, Dr Apraku expressed the Council's gratitude to the Interim Government for the commitment it had so far shown in the activities of ECOWAS.

Mr Bryant pledged that his Government would honour its obligations by paying the arrears and also expressed his happiness about ECOWAS intention to waive part of the arrears. He said the government had made a provision in its 2004 budget to pay the arrears but appealed to the Chairman of ECOWAS, President John Agyekum Kufuor to get Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to develop the capacity of the Liberian Customs to improve its tax collection.

Dr Chambas asked that Liberia should be given some time to do its homework well before any team was sent there to give the waiver and grace period to enable it to pay its arrears.