Fuel tax scrapped for key Liberia services: statement

MONROVIA (AFP) - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Thursday issued a decree exempting schools, hospitals, the national broadcaster and power company from paying customs duties on fuel, a statement said.

Sirleaf announced all fuel used by the Liberia Electricity Corporation, Liberia Broadcasting System and National Transit Authority would receive a "100 percent customs duty waiver on all fuel."

The 72-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winning president said in a statement this was in "the interest of national reconstruction and development".

The waiver would also cover "schools, clinics and hospitals that are deemed by the minister of finance to be inadequately covered by Government's budgetary appropriation or subsidies."

The duty exemption will lower costs to generate electricity, provide public transportation and information and minimize the operating costs of schools, clinics, and hospitals in the country.

After being devastated by successive civil wars between 1989 and 2003, the country is struggling to rebuild, with basic services such as running water and electricity not taken for granted.

It is however counting on future oil revenues after foreign companies began exploration last year.