Modeste Mopa: A new day is dawning on the tax system
Modeste Mopa: A new day is dawning on the tax system
It was in the conference room of the Krystal Palace hotel in Douala that the work relating to the meeting for exchange and consultation between the Cameroonian tax administration and the private sector began. On the one hand, the tax administration headed by the Director General of Taxes Modeste Mopa Fatoing , and on the other, the private economic sector.
This was a crucial moment in the economic life of companies, insofar as this meeting will lead to proposals for concrete measures which will be examined within the framework of the next 2023 finance law. this consultation mission, which will last a week, the DGI and his team are called upon to discuss and exchange views with various companies in the private sector. Thus, from this day on, sectoral consultations will take place between the said administration and companies such as Gicam, Ecam/Mecam, Cafcam, Amcham. On Thursday September 15, 2022, it will be the turn of Capa, Apeccam, Asac, Gfbc+Gex, Gpp+Gpc, Syndustricam and Fenap/Pfi/Acdc. The program also provides for the last day, Friday 16, hearings and visits to companies.
For the first day, which took place on September 13, the main interlocutors were the DGI and the governor of the coastal region. For the first, it was a question of working on improving our tax system.
“As you know, each year the Finance Law gives the authorities the opportunity to make amendments to the tax legislation in force. The main orientations of these future adjustments are contained in the circular of the Head of State relating to the preparation of the budget. For the concrete implementation of these guidelines, the traditional meetings between the Tax Administration and socio-professional groups have become a necessary and mandatory prerequisite for the production of a quality Finance Bill”, he specified. .
FACE THE MANY CHALLENGES
It will therefore be a question of reflecting on the necessary adjustments to be made to the Cameroonian tax system to enable it to face the many challenges, in particular those related to the impact of the security crisis, as well as the consequences of the health and social crises. Ukrainian. “It is also for us to ask you to share the difficulties encountered in the application of the tax legislation in force and the fruit of your reflections for the improvement of our tax system. Our objective during this week will therefore be to listen to you and to be attentive to your complaints and requests,” he concluded.
For his part, Samuel Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua said “understand that the consultations that open today in Douala would also look at the local tax reform project. I would therefore like to invite the Tax Administration and the socio-professional groups to dwell on this part of the consultations so that they lead to a reform of local taxation capable of providing the Decentralized Territorial Communities with the appropriate means to ensure local development. . Also, I would like to invite the entire business community based in Douala to collectively and individually assume the place of choice which is theirs in the strategy of financing the development of our dear and beautiful country, Cameroon”.
FROM 1,059 BILLION FCFA TO 2,656 BILLION FCFA BETWEEN 2010 AND
2022Modeste Mopa Fatoing to take stock of the evolution of revenue mobilized by the DGI from 2010 to the present day. During its presentation, the DGI revealed that the overall revenue mobilized by the DGI increased from 1,059 billion CFA francs in 2010 to 2,656 billion CFA francs at the end of 2022 according to estimates. That is a monthly average going from 88 billion Fcfa in 2010 to 221 billion Fcfa in 2022. As for the evolution of the revenues mobilized for the central State from 2010 to 2022, they go from 992 billion Fcfa in 2010 to 2,384 billion CFA francs in 2022.
With regard to the taxation of natural resources, the DGI pointed out that the mining tax revenue mobilized is well below potential for several reasons, including: the predominance of the informal sector (artisanal mining), the erosion of the tax base ( transfer pricing, misuse of tax incentives) and the low contribution of individuals. “Unlike developed countries where personal income tax (Irpp) represents the most important source of tax revenue, in Cameroon, the contribution of individuals is still marginal” underlinesModest Mopa Fatoing .
Yet even better tomorrows are on the horizon. The DGI intends to continue modernizing the tax system. In terms of tax policy, it intends to rationalize tax expenditure, optimize personal taxation, strengthen environmental taxation, reform local taxation and continue to lower the tax rate, among other things. In terms of tax administration, it intends to electronically track invoices and develop the concept of “integrated tax partner”, to name but a few.
