Calculation of the tax burden on mobile network operators in Africa

Grégoire ROTA-GRAZIOSI
Professor, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International (CERDI)
Head of Programme, FERDI
Fayçal SAWADOGO
Economist, IMF
Mohamed Aliou TOUNKARA
Chargé de développement d'applications et de base de données, CERDI-Labex

CERDI in collaboration with FERDI proposes an online application to estimate the tax burden borne by mobile phone companies in 25 African countries.

The authors, Faycal Sawadogo (CERDI PhD student and FERDI research assistant) and Mohamed Aliou Tounkara (FERDI research assistant) determine the Average Effective Tax Rate (AETR) related to the activity of a representative telecommunication company TELCO, built on the GSMA Intelligence database, and supervised by Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, Director at CERDI.

With this new tool, scholars and policymakers can calculate the optimal level of tax rates for 25 countries.

The tool also includes analysis sections including a breakdown of tax revenues and the AETR between general and mobile special taxation, beneficiary institutions, and a cross sectoral comparisons section. The cross-sectoral comparison considers three sectors: telecommunications, gold minings, and a standard sector without any special taxation. The application also allows each user to modify the parameters, assumptions and data associated with the analysis.

This tool was developed by the Centre for Studies and Research on International Development (CERDI CNRS-UCA) in partnership with the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI) under the aegis of the Initiative for Global Development and Governance (IDGM+).