(1996-09) Law instituting the "Contributions to the Fund for Management and Development of Territorial Collectivities" (CFGDCT)
Summary — Signed by President René Préval and published in Le Moniteur on 2 September 1996, this law creates nine earmarked internal-revenue levies (the CFGDCT) that supplement communal budgets to help finance decentralization following the 1996 law on territorial and communal-section organization. It funds municipal assemblies, CASECs, mairies, departmental councils and the Inter-departmental Council.
Key Findings
- Creates nine distinct earmarked levies (the CFGDCT) layered onto existing state taxes to finance decentralized territorial collectivities.
- Collection is delegated to the Direction Générale des Impôts with no commission withheld before transfer.
- Funding priority order: local personnel salaries and elected officials' allowances first, then other local charges in proportion to revenue, then special subsidies for the poorest communes' social/school/health activities.
- Covers all nine departmental councils plus the Inter-departmental Council and CASECs, operationalizing the March 1996 decentralization law.
- Rates range from flat fees (20 gourdes per license plate, 25 gourdes per plane ticket) to percentage levies (1% payroll and net-income withholding, 5% on lottery winnings).
Full Description
This law, adopted on the joint report of the Ministers of Interior and of Economy and Finance and after consultation with the Cour Supérieure des Comptes, establishes the CFGDCT (Contributions au Fonds de Gestion et de Développement des Collectivités Territoriales) as a package of complementary internal fiscal resources for Haiti's territorial collectivities, on the reasoning that purely local taxation is insufficient to cover the operating costs of decentralized bodies. Article 3 lists nine specific levies collected alongside existing state taxes by the Direction Générale des Impôts and the Direction Générale des Douanes: 20% of the retail price per cigarette pack (via excise-duty surcharge), 5% on insurance premiums, 20 gourdes per vehicle license-plate registration, 8 gourdes per international phone call billed in Haiti, a 2% customs-declaration surcharge (excluding petroleum, pharmaceutical, postal-parcel, food and agricultural-input imports), 25 gourdes per international airline ticket, a 1% payroll withholding on salaries above 5,000 gourdes/month, 1% of net taxable income for all taxpayers, and 5% on lottery and gaming winnings. Article 4 dedicates the proceeds to the functioning of communal assemblies, CASECs, mairies, the nine departmental councils and the Inter-departmental Council, with priority given to covering local personnel salaries and elected officials' allowances, and special subsidies for the poorest communes' social, school and health activities.