2024-04-11 10:00:40
“Decashing” is a fundamental need for Tunisia which has long wanted to find a radical solution to parallel trade. To deal with this, the implementation of a process to reduce cash, also known as “cashless”, remains essential. On the other hand, even if Tunisia ranks first in Africa and 43e in the world in 200 countries in terms of renovation, IT and telecommunications, the problems that citizens face on a daily basis when paying online or by TPE are multiple. There are many bugs and network problems when the system already exists! Things get more complicated when it comes to indoor areas.
Since 2019, Marouane Abassi, former governor of the BCT, had announced in a declaration, on the sidelines of the company’s days in Sousse, that “decashing” should start in June 2019. According to him, this involves, of a system to limit the circulation of cash in the country and to block the way for the informal economy. He also indicated that the bank had started work on this project since 2017. A “decashing” commission has been set up to develop a payment platform. But why is this project always behind schedule?
We need concrete and practical solutions
Last December, the Arab Institute of Business Leaders published the analysis undertaken by Anis Wahabi on “solutions for the implementation of “decashing”: an analysis of the root causes of the blockages of tax reforms”.
This analysis states that “since the announcement of the tax reform in 2014, a series of legal measures have been taken with the aim of improving tax performance, but also of concretizing a constitutional principle which is equality before tax “. However, many measures are struggling to be applied despite the various announcements made by government officials regarding a clear desire to combat the parallel market and tax evasion through “decasching”. Thus, this work explores the reasons behind this phenomenon of regulatory procrastination. The search for the causes, the roots of this problem, makes it possible to present concrete and practical solutions that can help in the effective implementation of the long-awaited measures.
Several recommendations have been announced. First, on the institutional side, it is important to make a paradigm shift. “Tunisia does not need more state, nor less state, nor a weak state. It needs a strategic State, an agile State, a strong State and a better State and this conception must be guided by the satisfaction of the user, in this case the citizen.
A State and an administration serving the citizen-client, capable of putting in place the right rules of the game and ensuring that these rules are properly applied. A State where good governance takes precedence and whose mission is to ensure that everything that must be done is done properly and efficiently. A more responsive State that listens to citizens and businesses,” we read in this study.
According to the recommendations of this work it is also necessary to reconsider the digital transition as a global vehicle for changing the concept of digitalization which has long been confused with a broader concept. There was a time when Tunisia was a pioneer in the IT field in the Arab world and Africa. It is necessary today to recognize the limits of the current system. IT projects are not limited to the digitization of documents or the development of platforms disconnected from the reality of the country’s cultural and regulatory system. On the contrary, a digital transition process constitutes a complete “reingeneering” of the system starting from the legal framework and arriving at management procedures.
Furthermore, and on an organizational level, structuring projects require not only political support but also project support.
Encourage investments in ICT
In Tunisia, the “decashing” project has always aroused the interest of the economic and financial sphere. Amine Ben Gamra, chartered accountant and member of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Tunisia, specified in an article that “decashing” is an interesting alternative to deal with the informal economy, a sector which represents, today, in Tunisia, according to some estimates, more than 50% of GDP, thus depriving the State of tax revenues essential to its budget, which it is struggling to finance without resorting to external debt.
“Since we have been talking regarding the need to confront it, the informal economy, fueled by smuggling networks, continues, unfortunately, to prosper in the poorest regions… Young people, who want to create a business to take charge of themselves, often find themselves faced with indifferent and arrogant officials. They then engage in a race for papers, faced with complex and finicky regulations and reluctant banks who are hesitant to grant them loans. And so many of them, in desperation, give up, or put themselves at the service of the smuggling mafias, who continue to amass enormous fortunes in cash. This is why it is essential to purge this enormous quantity of informal money which circulates in the country fueling trafficking of all kinds. This is one of the conditions for reviving the economy,” he said.
According to Ben Gamra, the reduction in the circulation of cash, which is necessary to deal with this situation, is however only possible if the means to carry out digital financial transactions are widely available and at low cost. “Also, the government must engage in policies aimed at encouraging investment in ICT and creating ecosystems that simplify administrative procedures to ensure business registration, while offering subsidies and tax relief.
In order to broaden the scope of digitalization, the government must also ensure that it upgrades the infrastructure needed for digital transformation to make digital financial inclusion more attractive to businesses than if they operated in the unofficial market.
He also specified that officially “Tunisia is engaged in the process of digital transformation essential to the formalization of the economy, but the efforts made so far to ensure better social and economic inclusion remain insufficient and without much effect.
The countries most close to “cashless”
Globally, Norway, Finland and New Zealand top the list of countries closest to cashless. They are followed by Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Singapore and the Netherlands, according to a study published by “Merchant Machine”.
In the 10 countries listed as being closest to going paperless, the proportion of cash payments is now below 5%, with Sweden, Denmark, the UK and Singapore having the lowest proportion (1%), followed by Norway, Finland, New Zealand and Switzerland (2%) and Hong Kong and the Netherlands (4%).
The study, however, lists countries according to a “global cash dependency index” which also takes into account the percentage of people with Internet access, people with a credit card, unbanked people and the number of ATMs per country. person.
Based on this combination of factors, Norway has the lowest cash dependency index score (1.54), followed by Finland (1.87), New Zealand (2.06), Hong Kong and Sweden (2.10), Denmark (2.15), Switzerland (2.21), United Kingdom (2.22), Singapore (2.32) and Netherlands (2 ,46).
In contrast, figures show that Morocco — where 74% of all payments remain in cash and 71% of the population is unbanked — is the most cash-dependent country with an overall score of 6.96, followed by Egypt (6.71), Kenya (6.56), Nigeria (6.54), Philippines (6.42), Bulgaria (6.38), Peru (6.04) , Vietnam (6.03), Indonesia (5.88) and Kazakhstan (5.59).
In Europe, the countries with the highest monetary dependence index following Bulgaria are Romania (6.51), Greece (6.42), Ukraine (6.26), Portugal (5.80 ), the Czech Republic (5.51), Hungary (5.16), Slovakia (4.85), Poland (4.75) and Italy (4.74).
“Bulgaria is the most cash-dependent country in Europe, making 74% of all payments in cash and offering 91 ATMs per 100,000 adults, while more than 70% of the population has a bank account,” say Researchers.
“Despite this high use of cash, only 28% of the Bulgarian population is unbanked, meaning that a good number of account holders still have to use cash to make at least part of their payments.”
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