DRC: State wants to recover badly collected taxes on coal
Audio 02:20
Burning charcoal.
Of the $ 81 million in taxes generated by the industry, the state only recovers $ 4 million.
© CC0 Pixabay / Kerstin Riemer
By: Denise Maheho
3 min
In Lubumbashi, the annual production of charcoal is estimated at over 400,000 tonnes, with $ 81 million in potential tax revenues.
But the exploitation of this source of energy does little for the Congolese state, because the bulk of the taxes collected do not reach the state coffers, according to a study carried out by the United Nations Development Program. .
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From our correspondent in Lubumbashi,
In Katuba commune in Lubumbashi, Mrs. Nyota arrives at the charcoal depot at 7 am.
She hopes to sell the 30 bags she brought two days ago.
To transport the charcoal to the consumption center in the city of Lubumbashi, it crosses several barriers and pays taxes in cash or in kind.
“
There are too many taxes.
At the barrier erected 45 km away, we must leave the officers two bags equivalent to 26,000 or 30,000 francs and the driver pays 10,000 francs.
At the toll station, we once again leave two bags,
”she laments.
Only $ 4 million in taxes recovered by the Congolese state
On another road axis to Kasenga, Forest Fund agents receive a lump sum for the transport of charcoal, explains Emmanuel, another seller.
"
It's approximate, it depends on the carrier ... He can have 60 bags, he declares 30 and the service does not have the possibility of checking
", he notes.
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Of the $ 81 million in taxes generated by the industry, the state only recovers $ 4 million, a large part of which remains in the pockets of civil servants.
“
There is a lot of effort to be made because there are also informal taxes.
So, in the 5%, part goes to the public treasury, another part ... The agents who collect share it,
”explains Professor Augustin Nge, who heads the Observatory of clear forests in the DRC.
Restore order
This tax evasion is encouraged by the modification in 2009 of the regulations, explains Jean-Pierre Ngwej, provincial head of the environment service.
Charcoal mining and trading taxes have been abolished, but some officials continue to collect them on their behalf.
We must restore order, says Jean-Pierre Ngwej.
To cut wood, you must have a carbonization permit.
And to sell charcoal, you must have a license to operate and sell charcoal.
Both report the stocks of processed wood and the stocks of charcoal sold monthly or quarterly to the environmental coordination which comes into possession of reliable statistics.
Meanwhile, the National Forestry Fund, which collects the tax on tree felling, claims to have achieved revenue of more than $ 1.6 million nationwide in the first half of this year.
These recipes are below reality, estimates the observatory of the open forests of the DRC.
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