In particular, FERDI is involved in assessing the tax expenditures and the tax burden of certain economic sectors (extractive industries, telecommunications), the connection between tax and customs policies, and their role in the regional integration process. FERDI is also interested in the taxation of international aid and tax incentives for investment.
This work is in line with the 2030 Agenda, whose objective 17.1 is to “enhance, including through international assistance to developing countries, domestic resource mobilisation to strengthen national capacity to raise taxes and other revenues”.
Support to tax administrations for the evaluation of tax expenditures. In 2021, FERDI supported the Togolese Revenue Office (OTR) in the preparation of its first tax expenditure evaluation report for the year 2020 and the Cameroonian General Tax Directorate in the review of its tax expenditure evaluation and impact analysis report.
Training on taxation of extractive industries. FERDI, through the Institute for Advanced Studies in Sustainable Development (IHEDD) regularly delivers online tutored training courses on the sharing of mining rents and on oil taxation. These training courses are based on FERDI’s African Mining Tax Database, the first legal and fiscal database to identify the tax regime applying to industrial gold mines in 22 African producer countries. This database is accompanied by a tool for simulating the sharing of mining rents between a State and investors.
Participation in the DATAFID project. This project financed by the French Treasury and implemented by Expertise France aims to: 1. improve knowledge of the digital economy and its impacts, 2. strengthen the capacities of tax and customs administrations through better use of data science. FERDI, through the Institute for Advanced Studies in Sustainable Development (IHEDD), is participating in the project to create a suitable, complete, training offer.
Facilitation of the French Inter-ministry Exchange and Coordination Platform on the Mobilisation of Domestic Public Resources (MRIP). Since 2020, FERDI has been mandated to lead this platform, which is a support for information and coordination of French operators in the framework of the implementation of the French strategic investment plan for development (PISD).
Determining the tax burden of mobile network operators in Africa. CERDI, in partnership with FERDI, is developing an application in R-Shiny for the determination of the tax burden of mobile network operators in Africa.