Treasury raises 1500 billion FCFA in first half of 2015

The decline in world prices of crude oil on the international market and insecurity on the borders with the Central African Republic and Nigeria, which hindered the performance of tax and customs administrations, do not seem to have had much impact on the Cameroonian public Treasury.

During the first six months of the year 2015, the government was able to mobilize 1500 billion Cfa francs of revenue in excess of 100 billion Cfa francs over the initial estimates, according to statistics from the Ministry of finance.

"Cameroon has the advantage of being a country whose economy is diversified. Oil, even though has contributed in the mobilization of resources for our budget, it has also accounted for about 20% of our revenues. Allowing us to say that with 80% of revenues derived from internal taxation, Cameroon is able to cope with these externalities,” said the Minister of finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, on the sidelines of the last Board of Directors of the Banque des États de l'Afrique centrale (BEAC).

According to the government's forecasts, Cameroon oil revenues will decline this year with about 300 billion Cfa francs. In order to fill this gap in the state budget, the Ministry of Finance announced early in the year, the implementation of a plan to maximize the recovery of tax and customs revenue. It was disclosed that the plan was to broaden the base of the tax.

According to revelations recently made to employers by the Director-general of taxes, the national registry had approximately 2500 taxpayers in 2014, while Cameroon has about 98 000 businesses, according to a census by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).