Financing the State Budget:

Taxation Dept Collects 450bn in 1st Semester

-This shows a net increase of FCFA 2 billion compared to same period in 2017

By Mercy Neba in Yaounde

The department of taxation has collected the sum of 450 billion in the first semester of 2018, up from the 448 billion collected in the same period in 2017. This was disclosed during a stock-taking meeting held by taxation officials in Douala on Saturday last week.

            However, this is not up to the objective of 488 billion projected in the 2018 state budget to be collected in the first semester of the year.

            This rather unsatisfactory performance could be expected. This is explained by the drop in taxes collected from non-petroleum sources notably from the brewery and mobile telephone sectors that are greatly affected by the ongoing crisis in the two English-speaking regions of NW and SW.

            Sources at the Taxation Headquarters note that taxes from non-petroleum sources have witnessed a drop of about fcfa 18 billion, with collections from Value-Added-Tax (VAT) also dropping by about 14 billion.

            Also, excise duty and stamp duty on business registration have witnessed drops of 4.5 billion and 6 billion respectively.

            Meanwhile, the special taxes on petroleum products (TSPP) and Taxes on the revenues of physical persons have both witnessed increases, 200 billion for the one and 8 billion for the other.

            As for the customs department, total collections as of 31st March 2018 stood at 148.6 billion, up from 144.3 billion in about the same period in 2017. This shows a net increase of 4.3 billion (3%).

            But this amount is far below the expected revenue collection projected in the state budget for the period mentioned. The 2018 state budget previewed a customs collection of 200 billion by the end of March 2018. Thus the 148 billion collected gives a net realization of 51.4 billion less, and rate of just 74.3% in relation to the budgetary objective.

            Like for the taxation department, the drop in customs revenue is not unconnected to the precarious security situation in some parts of the country that has made business activities notably importation and exportation to drop drastically.