Tsunami aid taxed

[wolf1]

[quote=]Oxfam pays $1m tsunami aid duty

Oxfam says it abides by the laws of the countries it works in
British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work.
Paperwork had kept the 25 four-wheel drive vehicles idle in the capital, Colombo, for a month.

The Sri Lankan government told the BBC News website the aid had been duty free until the end of April but was now needed to prevent "market distortions".[/quote]

Help reconstruct their country and they stab you in the back! They would have been crying if nobody had helped but now feel the need to screw the charities over.

[JagLover]

Often these 3rd world countries have high import duties on medicines as well.

But never mind, the problems of the 3rd world are entirely due to us in the west, BoB Geldof said so.

[Eric Mc]

If the Sri Lankan governmment collects some tax from our aid efforts, aren't we helping their economy anyway?

(Or am I being a very naive boy?)

[peterpeter]

JagLover said:

Often these 3rd world countries have high import duties on medicines as well. But never mind, the problems of the 3rd world are entirely due to us in the west, BoB Geldof said so.

did he actually say that???

or did he say that we could do something to help?

and if he did say it does it matter?...should we take the " them" attitude because of a few comments by a scruffy pop-star.

or perhaps he said we should just post cynical

messages on forums and moan about everyone else

(just a general obvservation...not aimed at you JL)

whilst doing sweet FA about it ourselves...the evil money grabbing self promoting demon that he clearly is.

at least people are debating it....and without the unwashed one, they wouldnt be.

[JagLover]

Eric Mc said:

If the Sri Lankan governmment collects some tax from our aid efforts, aren't we helping their economy anyway? (Or am I being a very naive boy?)

SOME Tax, I read it was a 200% import tarriff.

People make charitable donations to directly help the people concerned, not fill their governments coffers.

[Eric Mc]

Said Bob Geldof

It does depend on what the governments do with the money. The Sri Lankan governemnt is not looked on as a particularly corrupt one although it has a political agenda which tends to ensure that the Tamil population does rather less well out of government largess.

[Chim450]

One of my colleagues went to Sri Lanka in February as part of a medical relief team. He told me that a lot of their efforts were being stymied because of problems getting medicines and transport to the worst hit areas. This was due to the government imposing import duties and general red tape regarding aid supplies.

Now obviously I don't think aid should be withdrawn because of this, as the people who would be hurt the most are those that need it the most, surely though something can be done to discourage this sort of behaviour by the government concerned without adversely affecting those that most need the aid.