By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
As Sierra Leone steps into 2026, citizens are being ushered not into relief, but into a tightening fiscal noose. The Finance Act 2026, championed by the Julius Maada Bio–led SLPP Paopa Government as a so‑called “pro‑people” instrument, is in reality a sweeping tax offensive whose burden will fall squarely on workers, consumers, tenants, and small businesses.Government projects the Act will rake in NLe 25.9 billion in domestic revenue and grants. But the crucial question remains: revenue from whom, and at what human cost? For critics, the answer is painfully clear—this is a poverty‑escalating Finance Act masquerading as fiscal reform.At the heart of the Act is an aggressive expansion of the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) and the abolition of investment allowances. Under this regime, companies must now pay minimum tax regardless of profit or loss, while incentives for purchasing machinery and upgrading equipment have been scrapped. The implications are stark: when business slows, firms will not absorb losses quietly, but they will lay off workers, freeze salaries, hike prices, or halt investment altogether.The blow is compounded by the increase in Corporate Income Tax from 25% to 30%, the largest single tax hike in the Act. In a fragile economy already weighed down by inflation and weak purchasing power, this increase is an open invitation to job cuts and higher consumer prices. It is wishful thinking to believe companies will not pass this cost onto ordinary Sierra Leoneans.The 2026 tax policy places housing and shelter under siege. The Act’s adjustment of withholding tax on rental income from 10% to 15%, alongside a rise in non‑resident capital income tax from 15% to 20%, directly attacks housing affordability. Landlords will inevitably shift this burden to tenants through rent hikes. The foreseeable outcome is increased overcrowding, mushrooming slums, informal rentals, and heightened homelessness risks for low‑income families.Adding fuel to this fire is the restoration of the NLe 10 excise duty per 50kg bag of cement, a tax previously removed to cushion hardship. Its return guarantees higher cement prices, escalating construction costs, inflated rents, and a crushed dream of home ownership for many citizens.The 2026 tax policy has domino effect on fuel, and transport. Perhaps the most punishing measure in the entire Act is the harmonised excise duty on petrol and diesel at NLe 5.0 per litre, coupled with the new Vehicle Circulation Levy (NLe 500 for cars, NLe 200 for bikes). Fuel is the lifeblood of Sierra Leone’s economy; any increase reverberates instantly through transport fares, food prices, school fees, market goods, and basic services. This policy alone guarantees a new wave of inflation.The policy is unfeasible putting food on the tax altar. While the government highlights GST exemptions on LPG, solar panels, and cooking stoves, these gestures are overshadowed by a brutal 35% import duty on everyday food items—tomato paste, Maggi, bottled water, and eggs. These are not luxury goods; they are staples of daily survival. Taxing them so heavily is effectively taxing hunger, malnutrition, and desperation.The 2026 Finance Act pushes the fishing communities overboard. The new levy on commercial boats and fishing vessels up to US$1,000 per annum delivers another crushing blow, particularly under severe exchange‑rate pressure. Boat owners will have no choice but to raise fish prices, reducing protein intake for already vulnerable households and destabilising coastal livelihoods.Overall, the 2026 tax policies of the government are at war with reality of the times.Taken as a whole, the policies are a heavy, thorny cross placed on the backs of private‑sector workers and consumers. It arrives at a time when inflation is relentless, wages are stagnant, and survival itself has become a daily struggle. Without parallel wage adjustments, targeted subsidies, or robust social safety nets, these taxes amount to collective punishment. The likely consequences are chillingly predictable: declining investment, rising unemployment, soaring inflation, collapsing purchasing power, unaffordable housing, expensive transport, and skyrocketing communication and construction costs. Revenue mobilisation is not inherently evil. But when it is pursued blindly without equity, compassion, or economic realism, it ceases to be policy and becomes cruelty.The people of Sierra Leone are not against paying taxes. What they reject is a system that taxes poverty, penalises productivity, and rewards inefficiency. If rigidly enforced, the Finance Act 2026 will not be remembered as pro‑people, but as one of the most anti‑people fiscal experiments in the nation’s recent history.