Yemen's government ordered tighter tax collection at ports under its control Tuesday (November 6th) as it began preparing its 2019 budget with no end in sight to nearly four years of war, AFP reported.
The government had approved just one formal budget since the Iran-backed Houthis (Ansarallah) overran the capital Sanaa in 2014.
After a meeting in its interim headquarters in Aden late on Monday, the government announced the formation of a committee to draw up a 2019 budget, which is again expected to run a huge deficit.
This year's budget, approved in January, projected a deficit of $1.3 billion. There has been no official update since then on the state of the government's finances but the actual deficit is expected to be far higher.
The value of the Yemeni riyal has dived more than 36% since the start of the year, despite a $2 billion deposit in the central bank by Saudi Arabia aimed at shoring it up.
The riyal has now lost two-thirds of its value since 2015.
The government levies taxes and duties totalling 10% on goods entering areas under its control but the war has made collection uneven.
The cabinet approved measures to improve collection "on all taxable imports at all land, sea and air ports in liberated areas", local media reported Tuesday.
