As Libération recently revealed, Eiffage Génie Civil Marine Sénégal (Egcm Senegal) had been the subject of a general accounting audit, over the period from July 2022 to June 2023, by the Joint Unit responsible for management, the liquidation, control, litigation and recovery of taxes, duties and charges provided for by the additional act to the inter-State cooperation agreement relating to the development and operation of the reservoirs of the Grand-tortue/Ahmeyim field and relating to the customs tax regime applicable to subcontractors. Following the verification, according to Libé, “he was served with a notification of adjustments for taxes for the sum of 17.637 billion CFA francs. Following Egem Senegal’s response to the notification of adjustments, the rights initially notified were revised downwards in the adjustment confirmation for the amounts of 9.7 billion CFA francs, explains Libération.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 134 of the Additional Act, the applicant requested arbitration from the Interstate Fiscal Commission (Cfie) for the re-examination of the confirmed rights. Release to continue that following the referral, the Cfie, after taking into account the arguments and supporting documents provided, abandoned certain heads of recovery and the definitive confirmation of the duties due for the amounts of 4.9 billion Fca. But Egcm Senegal questioned the validity of the taxes confirmed by the Cfie before going to court to request the cancellation of the initial collection titles on the grounds that they no longer correspond to the tax situation given by the Collection Department.
The Cfie arbitration did not have the consequence of producing new heads of recovery and even less enforceable titles which are produced following a tax audit in accordance with the provisions of article 109 of the Additional Act . Also, the Collection Department has, by letter no. 00076 of 02/08/2024 entitled “tax situation after Cfie arbitration”, notified Egcm Senegal of the remaining amounts due after taking into account the Cfie arbitration and that Attached to this letter was a table indicating for each collection title the initial amount, the corresponding relief following arbitration as well as the final amount remaining to be recovered. Also, when the notification of collection titles, dated October 25, 2023, was not followed by payment within the legal deadlines on the part of Egcm, the Collection Department of the Dakar branch and the Director of The Joint Unit have, after noting the payment failure, agreed to implement the forced recovery procedure. This procedure was initiated by notification to the company of a Third Party Notice (Atd) which has remained unanswered until now.
Furthermore, after the request for arbitration made by Egcm to the Interstate Fiscal Commission and despite the fact that article 134 of the Additional Act, in its second paragraph, stipulates that “the referral to the Interstate Fiscal Commission -States does not suspend recovery”, (the mixed unit did not proceed with a payment reminder while awaiting the arbitration decision of the Cfie. This decision taken on January 26, 2024, was transmitted by the head of the Collection Department of the Dakar branch, accompanied by the tax situation, on February 8, 2024. In addition, after more than three weeks without response to the Cfie decision, the said department notified a new formal notice, which also remained unsuccessful until today The case returns to court this July 4…
