Under the framework of the DRC Government's reforms to clean up the business environment, Minister of Foreign Trade Jean-Lucien Bussa Tongba briefed the 61st Cabinet meeting on 8 July 2022 on the progress made by his ministry on the identification of unreasonable taxes and fees in the import and export sectors.

The foreign trade minister said that within the framework of government reforms to improve the business environment, one of his tasks is to identify the unreasonable taxes levied in order to rationalize import and export taxes, reduce costs and reduce delays.

He pointed out that the motivation behind the task is not only to improve the competitiveness of our economy and safeguard people's welfare, as economic operators have the ability to pass on the tax burden to consumers by manipulating prices controlled by them, but also to ensure that the country has a higher attractiveness.

In carrying out this task, the Confederation of Congolese Enterprises (FEC) submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Trade a list of 67 taxes that it believed were arbitrarily, excessively, improperly or unwarranted imposed by the relevant state authorities in the import and export of goods.

The Foreign trade minister pointed out that the list was carefully studied and reviewed with representatives of relevant institutions, ministries and public institutional organizations.

At the conclusion of this review, the stakeholders made three recommendations, which are as follows:

· Abolish 14 taxes;

· Reduce the rates of 20 taxes to reduce the burden on operators and maintain the financial balance of tax beneficiary institutions carrying out public utilities.

· The other 33 taxes remain unchanged.

A series of measures will be taken to implement the above recommendations.

After discussion and consideration, the Council of Ministers adopted the document.

Excerpt from - Africa Yellow and Black