After one year of existence:

B’da MTO hailed by taxpayers

By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

Chief of the North West Regional Tax Centre, Fonyuy Fidelis Bernsah

Medium size taxpayers in the North West region have given a cautious thumps up to the new Medium Size Tax Office, MTO that went operational just a year ago, crediting it for bringing services closer to them and for its customer-friendly approach to tax collection.

                Created by Ministerial decree No 00000405 of 2 November 2015 within the territorial jurisdiction of the North West Regional Tax Centre, it went operational on 1st January 2016.

                The Bamenda Medium Size Tax Office takes care of some 800 medium-size taxpayers from all seven administrative Divisions of the North West Region who make a turn-over ranging between FCFA 50 million and FCFA 3 billion.

                Since creation, the MTO is reported to have improved the quality of services offered in the region, reduced compliance cost and enhanced revenue collection for the state and decentralized local authorities.

                Speaking to this reporter,  Mbah Anthony one of the clients of this MTO rejoiced that administrative bottle necks and the middle man phenomenon which had been a problem to them has been reduced if not stamped out as payment of taxes at the center are done sorely by bank transfers.

                This was corroborated by Tangka Desmond, Bamenda Branch Manager of Kimbo Police Credit Union who said “with inspiration from organizational models applied in customer-friendly enterprises like banks, the organization of MTOs takes into consideration the need to treat the taxpayers with care.”

                It is worth noting that the creation of the MTO in Bamenda by the Ministry of Finance was undeniably spurred by the brilliant performance of the Bamenda Tax Center as regards the collection of state revenue.

                In 2016, the North West Regional Tax Centre under the leadership of Fonyuy Fidelis Bernsah and his dynamic staff collected FCFA 8.400.000.000 of the FCFA 7.731.500.000 targeted, registering a performance of 108.7 %. In addition to this, they also collected over FCFA 1.8 billion for local councils, CRTV and others.

                In 2015, they collected FCFA 7.600.000.000 with a progression rate of 11% in 2016.

                In the 2014 fiscal year they collected FCFA 6.781.000.000, over two billion in excess of the FCFA 4.666.000.000 targeted, representing a performance of 145.2 percent.