President wades in to resolve tax on calls dispute

The President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade has rescinded a government Decree passed in May this year that proposed a higher tax levy on incoming international calls to the country. The decision to veto plans to raise call taxes should hopefully bring the curtain down on a seven-month dispute between the national regulator, Agence de Regulation des Telecoms et Postes (ARTP), and France Telecom-controlled national operator Sonatel. Local newspaper Le Soleil reports the regulatory agency’s director general, Ndongo Diaw, as saying that the tax increases – which were due to enter into effect from August – would have raised CFA5 billion (USD10.4 million) a month for the authorities. However, unions objected to an August decision to monitor incoming calls passed through the PTO, claiming it would hurt Sonatel’s business and put jobs at risk. In September the monitoring, designed to allow the state to calculate the nature of the taxes it could collect, was temporarily suspended. Wade has now withdrawn the decree on monitoring incoming international calls altogether.