Gov’t to restore import tax on rice

As part of the 2016 Finance Act, currently under consideration by the Cameroonian parliament, the government has proposed that the importation of rice is taxed again after the removal of that tax, 2008.

The decision was taken by order of the head of the State signed on March 7, 2008, after the hunger strike that occurred in February, and had inflamed some major cities of the country.

If this government proposal is validated by Parliament in January 2016, all rice imports in Cameroon will again be subject to payment of customs duty equivalent to 5% of the value of the cargo.

The discovery of this government proposal, which can be justified by the intention to realize a 2016 budget sharply compared to 2015 (more than 400 billion FCFA), is on the horizon an increase in the price of rice on the kilogram in Cameroonian market.

If the tax exemption of early March 2008 rice imports had resulted in lower prices of this highly prized commodity in Cameroon, the decision of the Cameroonian government also contributed fueled smuggling networks between Cameroon and Nigeria.

In 2014, for example, faced with the introduction of a tax of 110% on imports of rice in Nigeria, a report from the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (Stoan), the grouping of operators of the port, revealed that "about 600,000 tons of rice were diverted to the ports of neighbouring countries such as Benin, Cameroon, Ghana and Togo."

These shipments, the report pointed out, were then re-imported to Nigeria through smuggling.

For the record, national rice demand in Cameroon is officially estimated at 300 000 tonnes. The national supply, provided by SEMRY and artisanal producers in Northwest and West, rises to just 100 000 tonnes per year.