SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

• Repatriation of after tax profits or dividends
is subject to the payment of withholding tax
of 10%;
• Repatriation of original loan or interest
payment thereon, known-how fees and other
services at the exchange rate prevailing at
the time of repatriation;
• Capital allowance deduction is allowed for
depreciation of a taxpayer’s depreciable assets.
The most significant effect of the tariff regime
is an excise tax on imported fuel of 50 %, the
landed cost of petrol and 41 % for diesel. This
affects tradable costs of all inputs, as well as
marketing and processing costs. Materials directly
related to the production in all the sub-sectors
(crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry), however,
face reduced import duties. Specific machinery
(tractors, and appliances, harvesters, veterinary
drugs and implements) can be imported at a lower
duty rate of 5 %, compared to 50 – 100 % for
luxury cars. Concerning protectionist measures,
as stated above, rice is subject to 15 % import
duty. Nonetheless, (at the moment of writing)
with the ongoing negotiations for a common
external tariff harmonisation for the ECOWAS26 and UEMOA27 regions, the government would
no longer be able to influence tariffs on both
agricultural inputs and outputs.
3.4.3 Rice: Government support and
intervention
The government through the Ministry of
Trade, the Rice Department, the Rice Corporation,
and the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board
(SLPMB) has been deeply involved in rice trading.
According to the report issued by IFPRI (2009)
the local rice operation of the SLPMB was rather
unsatisfactory as less and less local rice was sold
26 The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
is a regional group of fifteen West African countries
27 The West African Economic and Monetary Union (also
known as UEMOA from its name in French, Union
économique et monétaire ouest-africaine)
to it because of the unattractive floor prices set by
the government for local rice. Starting in 1987,
the monopoly of SLPMB in the rice trade declined
considerably when its foreign reserves from cocoa
and coffee trade plummeted due to low world
prices; it thus ceased operation. Consequently,
by the late 1980s, the private sector had assumed
a dominant role in the marketing of both local
and imported rice in Sierra Leone. However, the
estimated proportion of local rice that has been
marketed since the 1980s has averaged about 20
percent of annual production, implying that most
of the rice produced locally is consumed by farm
households (IFPRI, 2009).
Since the war, the marketing of rice in Sierra
Leone has not fundamentally changed, except that
the volumes of local rice production are much
lower and of reduced quality (given the absence of
sufficient milling facilities28 ) now than before the
war. In fact, although the rate of self-sufficiency
in rice increased in Sierra Leone between 2002
and 2007, the country still imports substantial
proportion of rice, which has increased from 120
000 tons per annum during the pre-war period
to 230 000 tons post war, a quantity short of the
national requirement of 530 000 tons of milled
rice per annum (MAFFS, 2009 & FAOSTAT).
The market structure for rice and other
major agricultural commodities sold by farmers
in Sierra Leone (i.e. maize, cassava, groundnuts,
and vegetables) generally follows a producerwholesaler-retailer-consumer
pattern.
3.5 Sector Constraints and Challenges
Although Sierra Leone is naturally endowed
with adequate land, water and climatic
conditions (to enable the agricultural sector to
contribute to high economic growth and food
security) the national context is one of the most
28 In 2004, a total of 53 small scale rice mills existed in Sierra
Leone. 60% of these mills were located in the Northern region
(National Rice Development Strategy. Sierra Leone, 2009)
Rural poverty reduction and food security: The case of smallholders in Sierra Leone
57