Madagascar: the draft law on the overhaul of the mining code adopted in the National Assembly

Mines Minister Olivier Rakotomalala, here in March 2023. © Sarah Tétaud / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

It was a long-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 room sparse, less than a third of the deputies had made the trip. No matter, say those present, who speak unanimously of a great step forward for the country.

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With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tétaud

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 state. And I would like to thank all these honourable Members for their support.

A hundred amendments to the initial text have been validated. Only two - proposed by the Commission on Mines and Strategic Resources - created discord and were rejected. A big disappointment for Mohamad Ahmad, the president of this commission, who despite his efforts failed to convince his peers to establish the equitable sharing of the 5% of taxes paid by mining companies between the central State and the decentralized territorial collectivities: "In Article 283 of the initial text, the government had proposed 3.5% for the central State. And 1.5% for CTDs, decentralized territorial collectivities. We, the members of the committee, wanted to give 2.5% to each. I have explained well to all Members by giving examples: a municipality that hosts a mining industry will benefit from 2.5% of taxes paid by this industry. Point. The central government will benefit from 2.5% of taxes, for each mining industry that exploits our subsoil. So, I thought it was normal that we divide the pear in two. Unfortunately, an amendment was proposed during the sitting. And it was finally officially decided that the 5% rebate would be divided into 3% for the central government and 2% for the DPCs. I even screamed. I wanted the new mining code to serve as an example and 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.

>> Read also: The Minister of Mines presents his project to reform the mining code

Another contradiction is Article 291; the Commission wanted the names of the bodies to which the fees allocated to the central government and the corresponding percentages should be clearly recorded in the law. "We all know that the state budget, in general, is not respected, so from experience, we wanted to know in advance the recipients and the amounts. And that didn't happen. The MPs wanted all the money to go into the state budget and then distribute the funds where they wanted.

Next step, the submission of the text to the Senate, with a vote scheduled for May 23.

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