Algeria Bank declares war on foreign companies

Algeria’s Central Bank informed finance minister Karim Djoudi and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal that international commercial companies used complex means and techniques to smuggle hard currency from Algeria by overstating imported services and goods invoice.

According to sources, the bank’s experts opened an investigation early in July upon request from the prime minister and the finance minister to find out direct and indirect reasons behind imports bill raise.

The investigation showed that the companies announced false sales to not pay taxes. Of them, a France-based enterprise has a 1,500 euro capital. It was founded to conduct exporting operations to Algeria while its sales reached 86.31 million Euros in 2011 compared to 67.359 million Euros in 2010.

The experts noticed that Algerian public banks and foreign banks operating in Algeria do not make necessary efforts to fund local investments.

According to the same sources, the Bank of Algeria gave new suggestions to the government to make changes to requirements related to some importing activities. This comes as 90 percent of importing companies overstate imported goods invoice to avoid paying Algerian taxes.