GTM press release, Tuesday November 25, 2025
The GTM firstly regrets not having been invited to this debate, which would have made it possible to clarify obvious misunderstandings about the current situation.
The GTM was in fact asked by its supervisory ministry about the possibility and modalities of a “significant and rapid” reduction in mobile Internet prices.
While recalling the historical reasons for the prices currently practiced in Madagascar:
- Very high sectoral taxes, among the highest in Africa,
- Regulatory taxes having exploded in recent years (prices of licenses and frequencies in particular),
- Permanently deteriorating macroeconomic conditions: Euro/Ariary parity (impacting Operator investments), explosion in Energy costs (direct Jirama costs, costs of new alternative solutions made necessary by permanent load shedding, inflation, etc.), inflation, etc.
- Recent and unfair competition from an operator paying neither tax nor regulatory taxes and having no obligation to invest or hire, leading to illegal, non-taxable wild sales and resale practices…
The Operators nevertheless agreed to apply these requested reductions subject to the removal of certain additional taxes recently applied to their sector or ineffective in their application (Excise Duties/Luxury Taxes of 8% on telecoms and 5% on mobile money, taxes on imports of accessible smartphones – less than $100 – preventing any democratization of the Internet and leading to an explosion in undeclared imports of poor quality phones penalizing consumers and presenting risks to public security).
The Operators demonstrated to the Authorities that these deletions, already applied in several countries, would not lead to NO DROP IN STATE TAX REVENUE…
Contrary to what was said yesterday, the Operators never requested the “removal of 215 billion Ariary in taxes”.
On the contrary, the Operators have committed to guaranteeing 400 billion Ariary in taxes in 2026, with these deletions, thanks to the dynamics of this drop in prices to which the Operators remain favorable.
The State will not record any tax losses in 2026 compared to the revenues forecast today already included in the BIA.
The Operators remain open to dialogue as part of the finalization of the BIA 2026 and call for great vigilance on the comments made in the various media, in order to avoid the misinformation that we are witnessing on social networks.
The GTM, as the country’s leading tax contributor, wishes to fully play its role alongside the Governmentin order to accelerate the Digital inclusion and Financial inclusion of the Country and launches an appeal to the Prime Minister and the President of the Refoundation to improve the LFI 2026 in order to meet the aspirations of consumers.
Paid partnership: M-CL024574