As part of the 2026 Finance Law, the Mauritanian government has introduced a 0.1% tax on all electronic transfer transactions exceeding 5,000 new ouguiyas, conducted through digital platforms. Presented as a modest and painless levy, this measure in fact conceals a high-yield cumulative mechanism capable, over time, of absorbing nearly all monetary flows circulating among citizens, until the exempt threshold of 50,000 ouguiyas is reached.
This article aims to deconstruct how this mechanism operates and to highlight its economic and social implications.
The logic of cumulative taxation
The mechanism is based on a simple yet highly effective principle: each circulation of the same unit of money triggers a new tax deduction.
When a citizen transfers one million ouguiyas electronically, the tax authority immediately deducts 0.1%, or 1,000 ouguiyas. The recipient therefore receives a slightly reduced amount. If this recipient subsequently re-injects the same sum into the digital system by making another transfer, the tax is applied once again, and so on.
With each iteration, the taxable base decreases marginally, while the cumulative tax revenue increases, turning monetary circulation itself into a process of progressive erosion for the benefit of the public treasury.
In other words, it is not wealth creation that is being taxed, but mere monetary mobility.
A concrete illustration of the mechanism
Consider an initial capital of one million ouguiyas:
- First transfer:
1,000,000 – 0.1% = 999,000 ouguiyas
(Tax revenue: 1,000) - Second transfer:
999,000 – 0.1% = 998,001
(Cumulative revenue: 1,999) - Tenth transfer:
Total tax collected reaches 9,960, leaving 990,040 - Hundredth transfer:
The state has collected 95,208, leaving 904,792 - 2,995th transfer:
Total tax amounts to 950,038, leaving 49,962 ouguiyas, now exempt as it falls below the legal threshold.
Thus, a single million ouguiyas can generate nearly 95% in tax revenue without any increase in nominal value, solely through repeated circulation.
A clear strategic inconsistency
This fiscal orientation stands in direct contradiction to previous public policies that promoted digital payments as a strategic lever to reduce reliance on cash, streamline transactions, and modernize the economy.
By artificially increasing the cost of electronic transactions, the state creates a negative incentive for the use of digital tools, pushing citizens back toward cash-based exchanges, to the detriment of transparency, traceability, and financial inclusion.
A measure introduced at the wrong time
The introduction of this tax comes at a particularly sensitive moment, as Mauritania enters the circle of natural gas–producing countries, accompanied by official rhetoric promising a new era of prosperity based on unprecedented sovereign resources.
As observed in other gas-producing countries, notably Algeria, where energy rents have helped ease tax pressure and support purchasing power, public expectations were oriented toward fiscal relief rather than additional taxation.
Instead, reality has proven the opposite: rather than serving as a social buffer, the gas windfall has provided the backdrop for new, discreet yet pervasive fiscal extractions, infiltrating even the most ordinary economic actions of citizens.
Socio-economic consequences
This form of transaction-based taxation insidiously increases the cost of everyday life. Bill payments, commercial transactions, salary transfers, and family remittances all suffer from gradual value erosion. Recent protests by money transfer agents confirm fears of a slowdown in the digital economy, while the state views this tax as a high-yield source of non-extractive revenue.
Conclusion
Under the guise of a marginal tax, this system transforms digital transfers into a systematic value-capture instrument for the public treasury, calling for a broad national debate on tax fairness, policy coherence, and the citizen’s place in the redistribution of national wealth.
By Engineer El Hadj Sidi Brahim Sidi Yahya
