(Ecofin Agency) - On January 1, 2018, Tunisia’s 2019 fiscal law containing the new tax provision on ADSL connection came into effect.
This law reduces the value-added tax applied to ADSL connection from 19% to 7%. For households, this is good news since it means a decrease in the prices for this service.
By adopting this measure, the government wants to facilitate internet access to consumers, reduce the digital gap between regions and overall, guarantee social inclusion.
The government expects to meet the objectives of its Digital Tunisia 2020, which places internet and the ICT at the centre of socio-economic development in the coming years, by facilitating the access of a large portion of the population to ADSL connection.
Currently, the penetration rate of fixed internet is still low compared to mobile internet. According to figures published by the national telecommunications institution (Instance nationale des télécommunications de Tunisie-INTT), in October 2018, there were 995,236 subscribers to fixed internet (33.3% of internet subscribers) against 8,873,730 for mobile internet (76.5% of subscribers).