It is established that in Congo-Brazzaville, the informal economy employs more than the public service and the private sector. But it totally or almost escapes regulation and taxation. The first edition of the assizes, which the government held at the beginning of the month, aimed to target the challenges and the solutions to meet them.
From our correspondent in Brazzaville,
Street vendors, cobblers, basket makers, small farmers: in Congo-Brazzaville, all these actors operate in the informal sector. To them, we must add bus and taxi drivers, whom Patrick Milandou, president of the union of land transport employers, wants to see exercise differently. ” We are going to make a recommendation to the government to move from the certificate of competence to a professional license. It is from this professional license that the driver will seek work. And his boss can afford to sign him a contract “, he advises.
In Congo-Brazzaville, no solidarity funding
In the absence of duly signed contracts with their employers, the drivers of mass carriers are often fired without rights. Most of them are not registered with social security. According to a government study conducted in 2017, the informal sector employs more than 73,000 people in 42,000 production units. But in the informal sector, workers often lack funding, explains Atipo Bourangon, head of a cooperative. He took part in the assizes. “ There, we are discussing because in Congo, we do not have a solidarity bank or a project financing bank “, he laments.
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Improving the taxation of very small businesses
A factor of social and financial inclusion, the informal sector knows neither regulation nor taxation. But it generates significant financial resources which unfortunately do not enter the coffers of the State, remarks Inès Nefer Bertille Ingani, Minister in charge of the Informal Economy: “ So nearly 3,000 billion FCFA (more than 5 million euros) precisely escape state accounting. Today, in the context of the fight once morest poverty, it is quite simply a matter of reorganizing this system. I think that by organizing this meeting, the government wanted to send a major message, that of reorganizing the informal economy. »
Teacher-researcher at Marien Ngouabi University, Inès Féviliyé often conducts studies on the evolution of the informal sector. ” These activities often stop at municipal taxes and departmental taxes. These taxes are often quite heavy. The goal today is to ensure that these taxes are reduced a little for these actors to be able to pay state taxes. “, she argues. She adds : ” It is possible to tax the informal sector because our tax system does not distinguish between very small and small businesses. And this taxation must begin with the registration of all very small businesses, according to the experts who took part in the meetings.
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