Radio Okapi.Ph/ Jonathan Fuanani”/>
The oil operators and the province of North Kivu agree on the collection of the conventional tax for the reconstruction of the province. This decision was taken on Saturday June 17 in Goma, following a meeting between oil operators and the governor’s adviser in charge of reconstruction.
Participants pointed out that the non-payment of this tax has disrupted some work.
In the city of Goma, for example, the governor’s adviser on reconstruction, David Kamuha, notes that the construction of urban roads by the Congolese Construction Company (SOCOC) is at a standstill on several axes, following the “very significant drop in revenue relating to this conventional tax for reconstruction”.
According to some sources, at least four major oil operators benefiting from the exemptions do not contribute to this tax. Moreover, they facilitate the fraudulent entry of petroleum products from other operators. This situation justifies the questioning of the president of the association of oil companies in North Kivu, Providence Muhiga:
“There are new societies [pétrolières, NDLR] who wanted to go outside of this participation for the development of our province. We had to make them understand that it is this tax that makes the city of Goma considered the cleanest city in the Republic”.
It is for more than a decade that this provincial tax was instituted for the modernization of urban roads, in particular of the cities of Goma, Beni and Butembo. It now stands at 60 Congolese francs (USD 0.02) per liter of imported fuel.