The Banjul offices of SEMLEX have reopened after the Belgian firm apparently coughed up some $4000 in unpaid levies to the Gambian taxman, APA can report on Wednesday.
SEMLEX which is contracted to print Gambian national identity documents was on Monday ordered to shut down by The Gambia Revenue Authority over unpaid taxes.
However, as of Wednesday the firm’s offices have been opened for business after its officials reportedly settled arrears in taxes owed to the GRA.
In 2018 SEMLEX won a controversial contract to produce biometric ID cards for Gambians, over a five-year period.
The terms of the contract entitle SEMLEX to 60 percent of the revenue from the production of Gambian IDs while the government will be apportioned 40 percent.
Controversially awarding the contract to the Belgian company by the government kicked up a storm after its main Gambian rival firm Pristine Consulting was apparently overlooked for the job of printing the country’s national ID cards until 2023.
The new government of The Gambia had apparently dreaded the legal consequences of walking away from an earlier contract which its predecessor under Yahya Jammeh had signed with SEMLEX years before.
WN/as/APA