Senegalese people could soon pay more for their transactions via Orange Money and Wave. This is the most feared consequence of the revision of the Fee for access or use of the Public Telecommunications Network (Rutel), currently under study in the National Assembly. In an interview with the newspaper L’Observateur, Abdou Karim Sall, former CEO of ARTP and deputy, warns that this reform, if it includes mobile money, will directly impact the wallets of users.
The Rutel, created in 2008 and applied since 2009, initially targeted traditional communications. Its rate, increased from 2% to 5%, applied to access or use of telecom networks, but not to mobile money. However, according to L’Observateur, the State is now considering an extension: a tax of 0.5% on each transfer and 1.5% on merchant payments via Orange Money and Wave.
The mechanism is simple: the tax is collected by operators (Orange, Wave or Free Money) to be paid to the State. But these operators have no interest in reducing their margins to absorb the charge. As Abdou Karim Sall explains in L’Observateur, “if the Rutel goes from point A to point B, it is the end customer who will bear the extra cost.” In other words, the operator adds the tax to their usual cash-in, cash-out or transfer fees, immediately increasing the transaction cost.
Let’s take a concrete example: a transfer of 10,000 CFA francs. Today, Wave charges zero francs for cash-in and 1% (100 F) for cash-out, while Orange Money applies its own rates according to the grid. If a 0.5% tax is introduced, this would add 50 F to the transfer. The customer would then pay 150 F instead of 100 F. The same logic applies to merchant payments: a 1.5% tax would be directly included in the fees charged to users.
The risk is twofold: increasing the cost of the service for consumers and weakening financial inclusion. “If taxes are applied to cash-in and cash-out, people may revert to cash to avoid the charge,” warns Abdou Karim Sall. For him, the State has other options, such as applying the 1.5% regulatory tax on operators’ turnover, provided for since 2009 but never collected.
If the reform passes as is, it could therefore transform a tool for financial democratization into an additional burden for households. And it is the millions of Orange Money and Wave users who will pay the difference.
