According to data revealed by the tax administration, the performance achieved during the first five months of the year is up by  123.5 billion F compared to the same period in 2021, which corresponds to an increase of 14.7% in relative value. Better still, the revenue collected at the end of May 2022 is 21.2 billion CFA francs higher than the initial forecasts, which brings the rate of achievement of the objectives to 102.3%.

By maintaining this rate of collection over the whole of 2022, the DGT should reach, or even exceed its annual objectives maintained at 2 184.8 billion F as stated in the presidential order of 2 June 2022, to establish the rectifying finance law of Cameroon.According to the DGT, the increase in the envelope of revenue collected over the years is the result of various reforms, which are mainly aimed at optimizing the collection of taxes, particularly through the dematerialization of procedures, from declaration to payment.

“Today, everything is completely done online at the level of large, medium, small and micro enterprises in the regional capitals. It is possible to register from one’s phone or computer, and to pay tax without going to the tax office. There is no longer a cashier at the tax office. Even the various tax certificates can now be obtained online,” explains Modeste Mopa , the director general of the tax authorities.

Expanding the tax base

As a result of this race to digitise, the time spent by taxpayers in fulfilling their tax obligations has been reduced “by about 30%”, revealed the Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Nguté, on 26 November 2021 at the National Assembly. This was during the presentation of the Economic, Financial, Social and Cultural Programme of the Cameroonian government for the 2022 budget year.

But beyond this simplification of procedures and the considerable reduction of contacts between tax officials and taxpayers, formerly marked by hassles and informal deals, digitisation has also facilitated payments, which are also more secure. For example, for the 2021 fiscal year, 10 billion F in tax revenue was collected via mobile money from mobile phone operators, or nearly half of the CFAF 25 billion paid by taxpayers at bank counters, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.

To this range of innovations that have improved the collection of tax revenues in Cameroon in recent years, we can add the transfer of the collection of certain taxes to companies (airport tax collected by airlines, car tax collected by insurance companies …, Editor’s note), and the gradual expansion of the tax base, with the introduction of new taxes.