Success amid insecurity:

NW taxation dept collects over 7.6bn in 2017

-For a set objective of FCFA 8.2 billion, the Bamenda Tax Office hit a 95% success rate in 2017 despite the volatile security situation due to the ongoing Anglophone crisis.

By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

NW Taxation Chief, Fonyuy Fidelis

The NW Regional Tax Office in 2017 collected the sum of FCFA 7.663.000.000 of the FCFA 8.250.000.000 that was set as its annual budgetary objective. It also raised the sum of FCFA 1.188.000.000 of the 1.500.000.000 that was fixed as its extra budgetary objective.

                This gives a success rate of 95.96% for the budgetary objective and 78% for the extra-budgetary objective.

                While the budgetary objective is the NW Tax sector’s contribution to financing the state budget, the extra budgetary revenue is used to finance third parties like the city council, local councils and other decentralized institutions.

                The NW Tax Office recorded this remarkable success despite the precarious socio-political situation in the region marked by civil disobedience and sporadic violence. Business activities fell to an all-time low, causing taxpayers to evade taxes or to be reluctant in paying their taxes.

                The remarkable feat achieved by the NW Tax Office was revealed by the Chief of North West Regional Taxation Centre, Fonyuy Fidelis Bernsah, in a presentation during the launching of the 2018 state budget in the North West region on 10 January 2018.

                “When we compare the positive aspect of 2016 which stood at FCFA 8.014.000.000 with that of the year 2017, we notice a drop of FCFA 351.000.000 in absolute terms and 4.4 percent in relative terms,” regretted Fonyuy Fidelis.

                Fonyuy Fidelis explained that the reason for the near perfect performance was due to the socio political crisis that rocked the region and which slowed down economic activities and triggered the reluctance to pay taxes by the taxpayers of the region. 

                He regretted that local councils had a difficulty respecting their financial obligations due to the poor security situation in the different treasuries districts in the region. 

                He also revealed that the local tax administration in a bid to preserve social peace by avoiding confrontations with the local population in the context of the difficult socio-political climate could not deploy themselves to the field as projected in their 2017 annual plan.

                The seasoned administrator however noted with satisfaction that despite the crisis, the North West region is occupying the 5th position nationally in terms of the volume of revenue collected in 2017 and that even at the peak of the crisis; and during monthly evaluations, the region was always amongst the top five.

                “We braved all the odds, remained consistent and collected these amounts without any noise,” he said.

                The reason for the resounding success according to the Taxation Chief was the high sense of civic responsibility of the North West taxpayers, the simplification of tax management procedures with the possibility of filing returns online, specialized and customized management of tax collectors in the region, rigorous tax controls, fruitful collaborations from concerned administrative units and commitment of the taxation staff.

                Fonyuy Fidelis also took time to educate the participants of the launching on some of the innovations for the 2018 finance law.

                Amongst other things, he revealed that the exemption from value added tax for micro-finance institutions concerns only those of category 1, that is those microfinance that deal only with members noting that it concerns only loans that are below FCFA 2 million.

                To ease the payment of taxes, reduce the number of intermediaries and secure tax revenue, he revealed that most registrations will be done online and that most of the payments will securely be done by bank transfers.

                He also announced that the shortage of fiscal mobile stamps which has been recurrent in the divisions will be a thing of the past as the administration has decided to reduce the number of mobile stamps by making available the franking machines in all divisional headquarters and treasuries. To clarify the doubts of those who doubted the authenticity of the franking machines, the tax administrator revealed that the machines are connected through a telephone network with the main server in Yaoundé.

                Another innovation he said is the extension of the dateline for the payment of the land tax from March 15th to June 30th with the possibility of payment through mobile money.

                The Taxation Chief added that the registration for loan agreements will be free of charge on loan agreements guaranteed with credit and for mortgages asked by category 1 micro finance institutions and shall also exclude collection of the graduated stamp duty. However loan agreements guaranteed by credits and mortgages passed with category 3 micro finance institutions he said will be subjected to free of charge registration but with the payment of a graduated stamp duty.

                He said sanctions will be meted on institutions especially banks and micro finance institutions that hide information from the taxation department in the guise of professional secrecy.

                He equally indicated that they will be organizing joint custom and tax administration controls where there is a possibility to access private premises and homes in order to have information that will help the taxation department collect taxes.