Law advisory body authorises tax collection for March

Central African Republic's law advisory body, the National Transitional Council, voted 60-2 on Saturday to authorise the government to collect taxes for March, pending the adoption of the country's 2004 budget, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported.

The council, which began on Friday a month-long session in the capital, Bangui, is due to examine and adopt the budget as well as pass other bills setting in motion the country's electoral process.

The council did not adopt the budget during its November-December 2003 session because an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation was expected to visit the country to make recommendations on its finances and economy. At that time, the council authorised the government to collect taxes and duties for its expenditure in January.

President Francois Bozize unilaterally extended the tax collection into February, infuriating the council, which indicated that it had not been consulted on the move.

The latest tax collection extension comes as Bangui University students and secondary school teachers are on strike over unpaid scholarships and salaries. The government also owes civil servants four months of salary arrears.

In efforts to implement one of the IMF team's recommendations to cut state expenditure, the government announced in February that it had decided to reduce salaries for senior officials by 30 percent. The measure has been extended to senior officials in parastatal firms.

Meanwhile, an association of private journalists, the Groupement des Editeurs de la Presse Prives de Centrafrique, has urged Bozize to pardon Jude Zosse, a director of a daily publication, Hirondelle, who was arrested on 25 February for allegedly publishing false information about corruption claims involving Bozize’s office.

In a statement on Friday, the association's chairman, Jerome Dotte, urged Zosse to apologise and make the required corrections, and called upon Bozize to be indulgent towards Zosse and to order his release.

Zosse became the second journalist to be arrested since Bozize seized power in a coup on 15 March 2003. Michel Ngokpele, who served a three-month sentence in Mbaiki, 107 km south west of Bangui for slandering local authorities, was released in November 2003.