The Minister of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya, sounded the alarm on Wednesday, August 14, denouncing the practices of dumping, splitting of goods and transshipment which, according to him, cost the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) no less than 5 billion dollars each year.
At a joint press conference with the Minister of Communication and Media, Patrick Muyaya, in Kinshasa, Julien Paluku stressed the importance of recovering these funds to invest them in the country’s infrastructure. “If we recover these $5 billion and allocate them to infrastructure, this would represent 5,000 kilometers of asphalted roads each year,” he said. “In five years, this could reach 25,000 kilometers, allowing the interconnection of all the provinces.”
The minister also spoke about the need to review the country’s tax system. He pointed out the current complexity, where an economic operator can find himself faced with a multitude of taxes imposed by different agents, which ends up discouraging investments. “We have understood, as a government, that it is crucial to review our tax system to make it more competitive and adapted to the evolution of the world,” he added.
Julien Paluku illustrated his point by citing the example of an investor in the Maloukou special economic zone, who, after investing $50 million for the production of earthenware tiles, was presented with a tax collection note of $11 million by a state agent. “This type of situation is unacceptable and must be corrected,” he concluded.
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2024-08-19 19:00:00
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