The government today suspended the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on basic or essential products until December of this year, the spokesman for the Council of Ministers, Inocêncio Impissa, announced in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado.

In fact, the Executive's measure is the return of a facility implemented in 2010.

During its 6th Ordinary Session, the Executive considered and approved the draft law amending Article 9(13) of the VAT Code to "extend, until December 31, 2025, the VAT exemption period for transfers of sugar, edible oils and soaps, raw materials, intermediate products, parts, equipment and components carried out by the national sugar industry, goods resulting from the industrial activity of producing edible oil and soaps carried out by the respective factories and goods to be used as raw materials in the oil and soap industry."

"This will alleviate the factors of production and allow entrepreneurs and production units of these products to reintroduce these products with some ease for the benefit of the population," he said.

Another expectation of the executive is that at the very least there will be no variation and speculation in the prices of the products covered by the measure.