Gov't establishes a 2% tax on mobile telephone calls

Starting from 2016, mobile operators and internet access providers operating in Cameroon will pay to the State the equivalent of 2% of their turnover for telephone calls and internet services. This is one of the main novelties of the 2016 Finance bill, currently on second reading at the Senate, after being passed recently by MPs at Parliament.

In addition to aligning itself to a directive from the CEMAC which advocates for the taxation of telephone calls, the Cameroonian government visibly wants to benefit from the boom in the mobile market in the country to replenish its coffers, as part of the process to increase its tax base.

Indeed, according to the national telecom regulatory body, the mobile penetration rate in Cameroon increased from 9.8% to 71% between 2004 and 2014. With more than 18 million mobile subscribers out of 22 million inhabitants, three operators and an internet penetration rate increased by mobile internet (boosted by the recent introduction of 3G); the Cameroon telecoms sector is booming. And the State, through this tax, has every intention to reap the most benefits. Anyway, to go well beyond the FCfa 617 billion in taxes paid by mobile operators in Cameroon during the period covering 2012-2014.

This tax could even change in the coming years. This, particularly as the Cameroonian government awarded, in November 2015, a FCfa 46 million contract to Resytal, to make “a comparative study on the tax system and levies to which operators from some African countries with the same level of development in the electronic communications field, particularly Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Ghana, are subjected”.