On August 6, 2026, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of Digital Economy, Augustin Kibassa Maliba, met a delegation from the Réseau des acteurs du numérique in Kinshasa and settled a question that had been open for more than two weeks. Interministerial Order No. 015 of July 20, 2026, which fixes the duties, taxes, and fees collected on the initiative of that ministry, has not been withdrawn. It applies in full. Startups, the minister confirmed, fall outside its scope.

Businesses selling digital services into the DRC, the order adds a further layer of charges to a sector that already carries what the GSMA has described as one of the heaviest sectoral tax burdens in Central Africa. The episode also illustrates how quickly a rate schedule adopted by ministerial instrument can be introduced, contested, and clarified, and how little certainty taxpayers hold in the interim.

What Order No. 015 Does

The order was signed jointly by Kibassa Maliba and the Minister of Finance, Doudou Fwamba. It operates as a rate schedule, setting the amounts payable for authorizations, approvals, renewals, and the operation of a range of digital services.

According to an analysis of the annexed schedule published by digital policy specialist Trésor Kalonji, the instrument has the following features:

• Article 2 extends the schedule to all legal and natural persons carrying on digital activities from or toward the DRC, whether or not they hold startup labeling.
• Fixed charges reportedly range from USD 100 to USD 100,000 depending on the service category.
• Renewal fees apply, together with penalties that can reach 100 percent of the amount due for a repeat breach.
• Congolese companies that are already formalized but do not qualify as startups fall within scope.

Two points matter from an indirect tax perspective. These are parafiscal charges tied to licensing rather than a consumption tax, so they sit outside the VAT credit chain and rest with the supplier as a cost. And the reference in Article 2 to activities directed toward the DRC gives the schedule an outward reach comparable to the destination principle applied to VAT on electronic services, which brings non-resident platforms within a regulatory fee regime many of them may not be monitoring.

Seventeen Days of Mixed Signals

The publication was followed by around ten days of objections from online newsrooms, content creators, and small technology firms, which argued that the fees would price them out of a market still taking shape. On the evening of August 1, the Ministry of Finance announced that application of the order was being deferred so that the two ministries could clarify its scope, with a further statement issued on August 3.

The position changed five days later. Following the August 6 meeting, the Ministry of Digital Economy stated that no suspension had been decided and that the text remained fully applicable, with startups excluded from it. The ministry declined the moratorium the sector had requested, pointing to the Digital Code as the legal basis for the schedule.

The sequence creates a practical difficulty. A schedule that binds from signature, is reported as deferred by one ministry, and is then described as never deferred, leaves affected businesses without a settled position on whether charges accrued between July 20 and August 6.

An Exemption Without a Procedure

The startup carve-out rests on Article 384 of the Digital Code, which gives eligible startups access to tax, parafiscal, customs, and foreign exchange incentives under the 2022 entrepreneurship ordinance-law. The relief exists in principle. The mechanism to claim it does not. Four implementing decrees adopted in draft form in May 2025 remain unfinished, so there is no settled administrative route for a company to establish startup status before the tax services. A business that qualifies in substance may still be assessed because it cannot evidence the status in the form the administration expects.

Layered on an Already Heavy Tax Base

The DRC was not a light-touch jurisdiction before July. A 2025 GSMA assessment identified VAT at 16 percent, a 10 percent excise on mobile services, a 2 percent universal service fund contribution, and a 3.6 percent RAM levy, and warned that the accumulation of these charges was weighing on the affordability of digital services and on digital inclusion.

The treatment of non-resident suppliers of electronic services sits on less settled ground. The DRC brought electronic services supplied from abroad within the VAT net through measures associated with the Finance Act 2024, but published guidance diverges on the mechanics. PwC’s Africa VAT guidance states that foreign providers must appoint a tax representative in the DRC, failing which the Congolese customer accounts for the tax under the reverse charge. Several commercial trackers instead describe a simplified registration route with no threshold, and at least one appears to conflate the DRC with the Republic of Congo, whose separate 18 percent regime for non-resident digital suppliers also took effect in July 2026. Providers should confirm the applicable mechanism against the Congolese instrument rather than relying on secondary trackers.

Whichever mechanism applies, the interaction with the new schedule follows a familiar pattern. A licensing or authorization fee borne by the supplier is not recoverable as input tax. It enters the supplier’s cost base and, to the extent it is recovered through pricing, forms part of the consideration on which VAT at 16 percent is charged. The burden ultimately reaches the consumer. In a market where affordability already constrains uptake, that is the effect the GSMA identified.

The Wider Pattern Across Africa

The DRC episode reflects a broader trend on the continent. Digital sector revenue measures increasingly arrive by ministerial instrument rather than through the annual finance law. Subsidiary legislation moves faster and gives administrations room to adjust rates, but it also bypasses the consultation and parliamentary scrutiny that accompany a finance bill. Order No. 015 was signed, contested, reported as suspended, and confirmed in force within seventeen days.

Providers with DRC exposure should take three steps:

• Map which categories in the annexed schedule touch their activities, since scope is drawn by service type rather than by residence.
• Document the July 20 to August 6 window separately, in case assessments are raised in respect of it.
• Treat the startup exemption as unavailable until the implementing decrees are published, however clearly the minister has stated it.

Conclusion

Order No. 015 remains in force, and the startup exemption announced on August 6 is a statement of policy rather than an operative procedure. Until the implementing decrees under the Digital Code are finalized, digital businesses in the DRC, including non-resident providers serving Congolese customers, should plan on the basis that the schedule applies to them. The wider lesson for the region is that digital sector charges introduced through ministerial instruments can take effect and shift position within weeks, which places a premium on monitoring subsidiary legislation as closely as annual finance laws.