(Adds food tax cuts by Congo Republic, paragraphs 5-6)

By Mathieu Bonkoungou

OUAGADOUGOU, May 13 (Reuters) - Unions in Burkina Faso began a 72-hour general strike on Tuesday to protest against soaring living costs.

Banks, schools and some offices closed but businesses, shops and public transport stayed open. The stoppage was the second in five weeks called by unions demanding salary and pension rises.

Soaring prices for food and fuel products triggered riots in landlocked Burkina Faso in February, part of a wave of protests against increased living costs which has swept West Africa.

Worried about the threat of social unrest, West African governments have moved to cushion the effects of the price hikes on poor consumers by reducing taxes and levies on food imports and bolstering subsidies for essential items.

Congo Republic's government announced on Tuesday it was cutting to 5 percent, from 18, the Value Added Tax on staples like rice, wheat, vegetable oil, meat, fish, sugar and pasta.

In a move to boost local food supplies, it also removed or reduced taxes on the import of machinery, boats and equipment for the fishing sector. Stockpiles and special sales points for essential food items are also being created.

In Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, many shopkeepers and small traders stayed open despite the strike call.

"We back the strike. The high cost of living hits us too, but if we have to close for three days, that's just going to make our problems worse," Ousmane Bayili, who has a shop selling beauty products in Ouagadougou's centre, told Reuters.

Most government offices appeared to be working normally. A previous stoppage in April received wider backing initially.

Unions are planning nationwide protest marches on Wednesday.

STATE REVENUES SQUEEZED

To try to help poor households, the Burkina Faso government has suspended import duties, made electricity and water bills cheaper for low-income families and is subsidising cereals.

But it says these measures mean it cannot meet the unions' demands for an immediate 25 percent increase in public sector salaries and pensions.

"The government ... cannot decide today to raise salaries," Labour and Social Security Minister Jerome Bougouma wrote in a letter to the unions in which he urged them to hold back from strike action until wage negotiations took place in September.

Union leaders reject these arguments and say the government measures have not brought down food prices.

"The government should not push us to the limit. We're holding our second strike in a month and if we don't receive a satisfactory response to our demands, then it goes without saying our struggle will intensify," said union spokesman Jean-Mathias Liliou.

In February, more than 300 people were arrested during violent protests against the high cost of living in Ouagadougou and the second city Bobo-Dioulasso, the agricultural centre. The unrest included widespread looting and clashes with police.

Aid experts say more than 100 million people worldwide risk being pushed into hunger because of rocketing food prices caused by a combination of record oil prices, increased demand for foodstuffs, speculation on commodities futures markets and the switchover of crops to biofuel production. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Additional reporting by Christian Tsoumou in Brazzaville; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Robert Woodward)

AlertNet news is provided by