Gas trailer drivers continue strike in protest of STC levies

Gas tanker drivers from Marib continue to strike for the third consecutive day in protest against the exorbitant taxes imposed by a number of security checkpoints in the governorates of Abyan, Shabwa and Taiz.

A truck driver told Yemen Youth Net that gas trailer drivers have been on strike since last Wednesday, and are refusing to leave the Safer Company yard in Marib to the loading station.

The source added that the security checkpoints in the governorates of Shabwa and Abyan (subject to the formations of the Transitional Council) impose exorbitant taxes on gas tankers, amounting to about 200 thousand.

Last Thursday, the CEO of the Yemen Gas Company, Mohsen Wahit, said that gas transport trailers had stopped arriving at the Safer loading station since Wednesday evening, due to fees collected from them in some governorates under the name of “improvement.”

According to Wahita’s memo sent to the Minister of Oil and Minerals, the Shabwa entrance point takes 200,000 riyals for each trailer, and the “Aarin Al-Aqla” point in the same governorate charges 50,000 riyals for each trailer.

The memorandum added that the Hassan and Dofas points in Abyan charge each trailer fifty thousand riyals, while the Dhubab point west of Taiz charges each trailer five thousand riyals.

The CEO of the gas company called on the Minister of Oil to address the Minister of Local Administration to cancel the collection of these fees from gas tankers, as they add burdens to citizens in light of the stifling economic conditions.