Gambiaj.com – (DAKAR, Senegal) – The Senegalese government’s crackdown on tax compliance in the media sector is intensifying. Following the seizure of the bank accounts of Avenir Communication, the publisher of the newspaper “Le Quotidien,” the government of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has also blocked the accounts of the Walfadjri press group for the same reason.

This action has sent shockwaves through the Senegalese media industry, with many companies expressing concern and wondering who will be targeted next.

At Walfadjri, CEO Cheikh Niasse issued a notice to his staff warning that the company will not be able to pay the usual Tobaski one-sixth salary advance due to its accounts being seized by the state. “We regret to inform the staff of the Walfadjri Group that, for this year 2024, the management is, unfortunately, not able to grant the traditional ‘Tabaski Advance’ to agents who wish it. The reason being that, as you guess, the new authorities have decided to block our bank accounts with a Notice to Third Party Holder (Atd) for taxes from 2016 to 2018,” Niasse stated.

The Walfadjri CEO noted that the disputed period with the tax authority relates to when his late father, Sidy Lamine Niasse, was running the company. “It is therefore the management of Sidy Lamine Niasse, who is no longer in this world to defend himself, that the state is attacking,” Cheikh Niasse wrote in his notice, without providing further details.

The government’s crackdown on tax compliance in the press sector is perceived by some in the Senegalese media fraternity as a tool used to target media groups that have expressed dissent over Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko Pastef’s party political methods.

While many media group owners agree that enforcing tax laws and holding companies accountable is legitimate, they question why the government of Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousman Sonko appears flexible with other multi billion-dollar business sectors benefiting from tax breaks and lenient tax schemes, while the media industry seems to be the primary target of this stringent enforcement.

It remains to be seen how this will impact the media industry landscape in the coming months.