It was a much-awaited vote in Madagascar, that of the new mining code. Friday afternoon, May 12, the 431 articles of the text were adopted in plenary session at the National Assembly, in a strewn room, less than a third of the deputies had made the trip. No matter, believe those present, who speak, unanimously, of a great step forward for the country.
With our correspondent at Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
Hugs, congratulations. As soon as the vote was validated, a crowd of pro-regime deputies crowded around the Minister of Mines, Olivier Rakotomalala, the standard-bearer of this reform. ” It’s a great relief! Because it’s been twelve years since we started talking about the revision of the mining code, he says. There are many reforms that have been introduced in this text to really maximize the benefits of the mining sector for national development from the source to the central government. And I would like to thank all these honorable Members for their support. »
About a hundred amendments to the initial text have been validated. Only two – proposed by the Mines and Strategic Resources Commission – created discord and were refused. A big disappointment for Mohamad Ahmad, the chairman of this commission, who despite his efforts did not succeed in convincing his peers to establish the equitable sharing of the 5% of taxes paid by mining companies between the central State and the communities. decentralized territories: “ In article 283 of the initial text, the government had proposed 3.5% for the central state. And 1.5% for the CTDs, the decentralized territorial communities. We, members of the commission, wanted to give 2.5% to everyone. I explained well to all the deputies by giving examples: a municipality which hosts a mining industry will benefit from 2.5% of taxes paid by this industry. Point. The central state, it will benefit from 2.5% of the taxes, for each mining industry which exploits our basements. So I found it normal to divide the pear in half. Unfortunately, an amendment was proposed during the session. And it was finally officially decided that the 5% rebate would be divided into 3% for the central State and 2% for the CTDs. I even shouted. I wanted the new mining code to serve as an example and to be the effective start of decentralization. But it is proof that there are people who are not yet ready to make decentralization effective in Madagascar. »
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Another annoyance, article 291; the Commission wanted the names of the bodies benefiting from the taxes allocated to the central State to be clearly written into the law, as well as the corresponding percentages. ” We all know that the State budget, in general, is not respected, so from experience, we wanted the recipients and the amounts to be known in advance. And that didn’t happen. The deputies wanted all the money to go into the state budget and then the funds be distributed where they want. »
Next step, the submission of the text to the Senate, with a vote scheduled for May 23.