DRC draft budget proposes GGR levy on gambling operators
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- DRC draft Finance Bill proposes a gambling levy, the RJAH, based on gross gambling revenue.
- Proceeds would be split equally between the treasury and gambling oversight and excessive-gambling measures.
- The Finance Minister would set the rate later by ministerial order.
- The National Assembly declared the bill admissible on 30 October and referred it to a committee.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing a new levy on gambling operators under its 2027 budget plans. Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka presented the draft Finance Bill to the National Assembly, and the levy is part of it. The new fee would be called the RJAH, short for the Gambling and Games of Chance Sector Levy.
The basis would be gross gambling revenue (GGR) rather than turnover. GGR means what players stake, less what is paid back to them as winnings. Every legal entity that runs gambling activities in the DRC would fall within its scope. The General Directorate of Administrative, Judicial, State and Participation Revenue would be in charge of collecting it.
The government says the proceeds would be divided evenly between the public treasury and gambling supervision and regulation activities. The state treasury would receive half of the money collected, paid directly. The other 50% would finance gambling oversight, sector supervision and prevention programmes. The country's Gambling and Games of Chance Sector Monitoring Unit (CSJA) would manage those funds.
The draft law does not yet state how much operators would pay. The bill gives the Finance Minister the task of setting the final rate in a separate ministerial order. That order would also set out how GGR is calculated and the rules for declaring, assessing and paying the levy.
The bill has not yet completed its passage through parliament. On October 30, lawmakers ruled the Finance Bill admissible and sent it to ECOFIN, the Economic and Financial Committee, for closer review and potential amendments. It will then come back for broader consideration. Only weeks earlier, Delly Sesanga, an opposition politician who heads the Envol party, urged that the 10% ad valorem levy on what players win be dropped in favour of GGR.