Now that the discussions between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Tunisia are moving in the right direction the Managing Director of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, believes that these same discussions are progressing well, on the one hand, and that the World Bank by the voice of its vice-president for the Mena region, Farid Belhaj, qualifies the intentions of reforms envisaged by Tunisia as good and calls for them to materialize as soon as possible, the day of Thursday, April 21 brought something new for what its provisions to be implemented within the framework of the tax reform which is part of the roadmap-program that the government has submitted to the Fund with the aim of obtaining its approval with regard to credits estimated at some 4 thousand million dinars which he wishes to access from the Fund.
• The tax reform, an integral part of the reform program introduced by Tunisia, is based on six main axes
• The World Bank reaffirms its commitment to a sustainable recovery in Tunisia
• The IMF expresses its readiness to offer its technical assistance to Tunisia to take advantage of comparative experiences
Indeed, in a text published by the Ministry of Finance, we learn that during IMF-Tunisia technical meetings, the outlines on which the tax reform planned by the Tunisian government will be based were examined.
And these broad outlines testify, by their clarity, their precision and above all their ability to be implemented as quickly as possible, of the will displayed by the government to respond positively to the legitimate demands that so many parties, personalities and organizations continue to express the objective of establishing a fair tax policy where the sacrifices are shared by the taxpayers, convinced that their contributions (money) are really spent on development projects and not diverted with impunity, for ends personal.
Thus, Mrs. Sihem Boughdiri, Minister of Finance, underlines that the tax reform will be based on the following six main axes:
– The simplification of taxation in the sense, surely, of putting an end definitively to the complications which currently mark certain regimes to the point that even the experts sometimes fail to understand these regimes.
– The unification of identifiers with the aim of ensuring that all sectors of activity obey, in the future, the same identifier
– The strengthening of tax justice with the aim of putting an end to current practices which offer the opportunity to certain liberal activities (doctors, lawyers, offices, consultants, etc.) to pay very derisory taxes within the framework of the system lump sum, while public and private sector employees are obliged to see their salaries subject to deductions at source sometimes reaching a quarter.
– The broadening of the taxpayer base with the aim of ensuring that several economic activities not currently concerned by taxes will be so in the future.
– The fight against tax evasion, the purpose of which will simply and simply be the recovery by the State of thousands of billions of dinars of which the public treasury has been deprived for decades due to the refusal of the persons and companies concerned to pay to the state the taxes they owe it.
– The digitization of tax administration, which is a demand that has been around for several years, with the aim of putting an end to the current mess and establishing a traceability system that breaks with all practices that promote tax evasion. And the press release from the Ministry of Finance emphasizes the aid that the IMF will provide to Tunisia so that this tax reform plan can succeed by “taking advantage of comparative experiences”.
The WB pleads for a sustainable recovery
And the beginnings of the success of the participation of the Tunisian delegation in the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank to bring something new from the World Bank.
Farid Belhaj, WB vice-president for the Mena region, qualifies, in a tweet, his meeting with Ms. Sihem Boughdiri, Minister of Finance, and Samir Saïed, Minister of Economy and Planning, as “productive”.
He also explains “having reaffirmed the World Bank’s commitment to a sustainable recovery in Tunisia”.
The press release issued by the Ministry of Finance informing about the content of the same meeting emphasizes the World Bank’s support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
It remains, however, to note that despite the reassuring declarations which arrive daily from Washington on behalf of the members of the Tunisian delegation participating in the meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, certain experts, including the economist Ezzeddine Saïdane, continue to consider that the mission of the delegation is very difficult because of the following three factors, “namely the state of exception which prevails in Tunisia, the absence of a consensus between the government and the Ugtt and the rate of country’s indebtedness judged to be very high by the IMF.
