The SAPH of Jean-Louis Billon has been the subject of a tax adjustment in Côte d'Ivoire. 2.609 billion FCFA that the company has paid in full without threatening jobs, for patriotic reasons. A hassle against a presidentiable of the PDCI?

"Saph has been the subject of a general accounting audit by the Directorate of National Tax Audits of the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI of Sié Abou Ouattara). This audit covered the financial years 2015 to 2017," the company confirmed in a public note.

 
This verification, the umpteenth that the company underwent, "began on July 2, 2018 and ended on June 27, 2019", for a whole year, an unprecedented fact in Côte d'Ivoire. The SAPH reveals that "the resulting final notification of reorganization relates to an amount of two billion six hundred million nine hundred and forty thousand one hundred and forty-nine francs (XOF 2,609,940,149) including two billion four hundred million nine hundred and forty thousand one hundred and forty-nine francs (XOF 2,400,940,149)".

The company specifies that these amounts "relate to simple duties and two hundred million (XOF 200,000,000) relating to penalties and surcharges". Respectful of the procedures, even if they would seem abnormal in the eyes of the ordinary citizen, Jean-Louis Billon ordered that the 2.6 billion FCFA be "fully accounted for and paid over the period of June 2019 by the company".

SAPH tax adjustment and political hassle?

A subsidiary of SIFCA (Côte d'Ivoire's largest employer after the State) since 1999, the Société africaine de plantations d'hévéas (SAPH) is the leading producer of natural rubber in West Africa. It produces more than 163,000 tons machined per year, employs 5,400 people in five agricultural units in the Ivorian territory and supervises more than 29,000 rubber planters. The company has been listed on the Abidjan Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM) since 1996. Its share capital is 14.6 billion FCFA.

The name of Jean-Louis Billon, boss of the Sifca group (which had already been the subject of a tax adjustment of 91 billion CFA francs in 2018, editor's note: africanewsquick.net), often goes to Henri Konan Bédié's PDCI, as one of the most serious presidentiables, in front of outgoing President Alassane Ouattara (who cannot legally be a candidate for a third term, unless passage in force) or his putative dauphin (RHDP) Amadou Gon Coulibaly.

The tax burden recently fell on another potential candidate for the October 2020 presidential election, Prof. Urbain Amoa. His university is threatened with closure by the DGI. The academic denounces a political conspiracy.