The dock dues, a tax on imported products specific to overseas departments and regions (Drom), is a tax on its last legs which must be thoroughly reformed, judges the Court of Auditors in a report published on Tuesday.
Initially designed to protect local production, dock dues have become an essential support for the finances of overseas communities, but this tax is also often considered responsible for the cost of living.
The time seems to have come to fundamentally reform a tax system that is now out of steam in many respects and which no longer responds to the structural challenges facing overseas territories, affirms the Court.
Pursuing too many objectives simultaneously, according to its report, dock dues therefore have serious problems of coherence and efficiency and suffer from excessive complexity in relation to the revenue collected.
The financial institution thus believes that the system locks overseas economies into a model that is not very promising for the future, evoking long-term protectionism, limiting competition, innovation, and preserving acquired situations.
The first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, notably spoke to the press about the proven negative impacts of dock dues on the cost of living in overseas territories, of the order of 5% to 10% of costs. average surcharges.
If it is not the only, nor even the main cause of the cost of living in the Drom, sea dues contribute significantly to the cost of living, he continued.
Mr. Moscovici also regretted that no exemption was granted to public services, which have paid 159 million since 2017 in this respect, weighing in particular on the budgets of hospitals.
The Court envisages three possible scenarios for the future of the tax, including a status quo which seems to have to be discarded and a rupture scenario with its abolition by 2027 and its replacement by an alternative resource, for example a regional VAT.
The preferred scenario, called reformist, must systematically modify the dock dues, considers the Court, which makes twelve recommendations.
Among these, measures to strengthen control of the system or the reduction in the number of rates (from 7 to 16 currently according to the Drom).
The Court also wants communities to devote more of this resource to investment, with dock dues currently mainly used to finance their operating expenses.
Finally, to mitigate the effects of the tax on prices, the magistrates of rue Cambon recommend capping it for essential products and excluding from the system products for which there is a local monopoly or for which local production is limited. very weak.
The expiration of the regime currently in force at the end of 2027 leaves the time necessary for peaceful and concerted development, concludes the Court.
It remains to convince territories where most elected officials are very attached to this tax, concedes the Court.
In 2022, according to its calculations, the dock dues generated 1.64 billion euros in revenue for the five DROMs (Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Mayotte, La Runion) which receive it, notably providing 32% of the municipalities’ resources. .
In July 2023, an Interministerial Overseas Committee (CIOM) had already noted the need to fundamentally reform dock dues.