DRC freezes Vodacom Group’s bank accounts & seals part of offices

The Democratic Republic of Congo has sealed parts of Vodacom Group’s offices and has frozen the company’s bank accounts owing to a tax dispute.

The disagreement comes after an audit for the year 2016 until 2019 by the general directorate of taxes that discovered that Vodacom Congo owed more than $243 million.

According to a report by Fin24, the telecoms company said in an emailed statement on Friday.

It is now reported that the Congolese tax agency has moved to seize the funds, despite an appeal that reduced the assessment to $165 million, which Vodacom is also appealing, it said.

“On 6 and 7 December 2022, agents of the General Directorate of Taxes presented themselves at our technical, commercial, and administrative offices and proceeded with the installation of seals,” according to the statement.

“Vodacom continues to use all the means of recourse provided by the legislation in force to ensure that the law is established and is awaiting the outcome of the procedures underway before the various competent judicial and administrative bodies.”

The publication has it that the country’s telecommunications regulator has not yet issued a statement and Congo’s tax agency also didn’t to media inquiries.

In addition, Congolese officials also confiscated the passports of Vodacom executives and banned them from traveling a few months ago.

After refusing to comply to a controversial tax levy that the state planned to impose, the documents were later returned resulting in an agreement to cap the amount of the additional tax to $65 million in 2023 and $70 million all other years, Bloomberg reported.  

Meanwhile, telecom operators such as Orange SA, Airtel Africa Plc, and Africell Holding SAL had to agree to the tax regulations.