Signs of a tax battle between the Ben Brik government and the municipality of Mahra

Yemen

Yamanat – Special

Signs of a tax battle have begun to emerge between the government of Salem bin Brik and local authorities in Al-Mahra governorate, in Yemen’s far east.

The battle mainly revolves around the customs revenue of the governorate, which has two land ports with the Sultanate of Oman (Shihn and Sarfit).

On November 7, 2025, local authorities in Al-Mahra Governorate tasked a committee to visit customs ports to replenish the governorate’s accounts with sales tax, 1% collection incentive, Disabled Fund income and 70% of customs duties and commercial profits tax.

The decision of Governor Muhammad Ali Yasser, according to which the committee was formed, confirmed that the work of the committee will be carried out according to the previous mechanism until an agreement is reached with the Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance.

After the committee visited the Shehn customs port, a dispute arose between the customs administration and the committee, due to the directives issued based on the presidential decision issued at the beginning of last November, which stipulated the provision of customs and tax revenues from the governorates to the Central Bank of Aden and its branches, considering that these are central revenues.

Following the dispute, the customs director sent a memorandum to the head of the customs authority stating that the committee was threatening customs employees with expulsion and imprisonment if they did not implement the directives of the committee formed to implement the governor’s decision.

Based on what happened, the Prime Minister sent a memorandum to the Chairman of the Presidential Command Council, in which he called for ordering the Governor of Al-Mahra to strictly respect the implementation of Resolution No. (11) of 2025 of the Presidential Command Council, to fully commit to providing all central resources to the government accounts allocated to the Central Bank of Yemen and its branches, and to refrain from any interference in the work of customs ports or the tasks of its employees, emphasizing that the government declines any responsibility for any effects or consequences that may result from the continuation of these violations.

Therefore, what happened in Al-Mahra could open the door to similar problems in other governorates, which would create a revenue crisis between the government and the local authorities of the governorates, which preceded the work of the government, whose president seems to refuse to return to Aden before receiving the powers he demands, according to which Presidential Decision No. (11) was taken to enable Ben Brik and his government to work to confront and resolve the problems faced by the government, in particular the disbursement of salaries which have been suspended for four months.

Therefore, the outbreak of a tax battle between the government and local authorities will only lead to the continued collapse of services and the inability of the government to discharge its constitutional tasks and duties.

The current crisis reflects the depth of conflict between local authorities and the central government over fiscal resources, as well as accompanying disagreements over the implementation of presidential decisions.

The persistence of these tensions threatens the collapse of mechanisms for collecting resources and disbursing contributions, and increases the fragility of public services, which confirms that any lasting solution requires clear coordination between the government and local authorities, as well as respect for legal frameworks to avoid a worsening of crises.

Yemen