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As smuggling in Tunisia increases, economic institutions unable to compete

January 18, 2018 at 9:18 am

Wided Bouchamaoui, head of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts [Touzrimounir/Wikipedia]

Wided Bouchamaoui, head of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, has said that Tunisia’s private economic institutions are “unable” to compete because of the increase in smuggling.

Bouchamaoui was speaking at the opening of the confederation’s 16th National Congress which was held yesterday in the capital Tunis.

The confederation expressed its rejection of the one per cent VAT increase and the imposition of a new social security tax of one per cent on employees and companies as laid out in the 2018 budget.

In 2017 the confederation warned of a seven and a half per cent “circumstantial tax” on corporate profits, which was approved by the public budget because of its negative impact on investment, according to previous media statements made by members of the organisation.

Bouchamaoui called for the need to distance the organisation from political disputes, saying: “Whoever wants politics, he can do so away from the confederation.”

Read: Prominent Tunisian intellectual: France, UAE support ‘counter-revolution’

 A study by the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies published in November 2017 revealed that smuggling and the parallel economy represent more than 50 per cent of the Tunisian economy’s transactions.

At the same congress Bouchamaoui announced the withdrawal of her candidacy for the presidency of the confederation for “personal reasons”, denying any pressure from inside or outside the confederation.

Bouchamaoui, 56, became well known in May 2011 for her role in the national dialogue in 2013 and 2014 to overcome the political crisis that shook the country. It led the formation of a government of technocrats instead of the government of the Troika, headed by Ennahda Movement.

Today, 122 candidates are competing for the Executive Office of the Confederation. The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts was founded on 17 January, 1947, and currently has 24 branches.