The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main business federation submitted a formal complaint to Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito about the burden that new taxes, regulation and corruption are placing on companies.
In a 20-page document handed to Muzito at a meeting yesterday in Kinshasa, the Federation des Entreprises du Congo said Congo’s fiscal policy imposes a “disproportionate burden” on the mining, transport, manufacturing and banking industries.
Muzito told FEC members that his government wanted a “constructive dialogue” on improving the business climate in the country, according to an e-mailed statement sent by his office after the meeting.
Congo, which holds 4 percent of the world’s copper and 30 percent of all cobalt, is rebuilding its economy after two civil wars between 1996 and 2003 destroyed the country’s infrastructure and claimed the lives of millions. Companies including AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., the world’s third-largest gold producer, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the biggest publicly traded copper miner, have operations in the Central African country.
In March, Muzito called on the government to double its revenue, something the FEC says is being carried out through taxes, some of them illegal, and fees.
“In a context where the informal sector is dominant and corrupt, informal and mafia-like practices are important, a fiscal policy based on increasing fiscal pressure puts a disproportionate burden on the few businesses that operate in the formal sector,” FEC President Albert Yuma said in the document.
Congo’s courts have become a “graveyard for the law,” where corruption and susceptibility to external pressure are undermining confidence in the judiciary, Yuma said.
Congo was ranked second to last among countries in the World Bank’s 2010 guide for ease of doing business.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Kavanagh in Kinshasa at mkavanagh9[at]bloomberg.net.
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