81275829-Expert pool to support the project at the level of all project components

Heavily dependent on oil and gas, Algeria's economy is facing a decline in real economic growth and state foreign exchange reserves due to several years of falling oil prices. Decentralisation has made little progress. The more than 1,500 municipalities are mostly inadequately funded and have little decision-making autonomy vis-à-vis the central state. The public administration is cumbersome, non-transparent and not very close to the people. The government ended the policy of budget consolidation and returned to the previous high social spending. This led to a rising budget deficit. As a result, Algerian institutions are increasingly forced to cut costs and use available funds more efficiently. On the other hand, the country's industrial and demographic development is accompanied by increasing pollution and overexploitation of natural resources. The costs associated with this are estimated to be around EUR10.3 billion annually. To better address these external costs, the Algerian government has introduced 16 different environmental taxes. Some of the environmental taxes are directly related to climate protection, such as the tax on petroleum products. There are also taxes on national energy consumption or appliances with high energy consumption. However, these taxes are only partially levied. Within the framework of the project, the tax on environmentally hazardous and polluting activities, the complementary tax on atmospheric pollution of industrial origin, the complementary tax on industrial waste water, the incentive tax for the removal of industrial waste and the incentive tax for the removal of waste related to the care activities of hospitals and clinics will be examined.