“The declaration and payment of your taxes by electronic means (mobile phone) are now operational for MTN subscribers.”
This is the message that the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) in Cameroon has been disseminating for several days. According to the tax administrator, the new tax collector will facilitate payment to taxpayers at the country’s divisional tax centers (CDIs).
Read also: Finance law 2021: Cameroon Prohibits Payment Of Taxes In Cash
Here Is What You Need To Know
- MTN thus becomes the second telecom operator after the Cameroonian subsidiary of Orange.
- With both Orange and MTN Cameroon coming on board, electronic tax payment service now reaches some 20 million subscribers in the central African country.
- Other operators such as Camtel and Nexttel as also waiting to join.
- Electronic tax collection is a provision of the country’s 2021 finance law.
- The law now covers the issuance and notification of receipts electronically and consequently eliminated the issuance of manual receipts which are a source of “various fraud”.
- However, according to the 2021 finance law, taxpayers can also carry out these tax transactions by bank transfer.
- The country recently prohibited the payment of tax in cash. This is to avoid embezzlement of public funds. Indeed, tax officials in the past were not often hesitant to help themselves when in contact with cash.
- In 2017, the country’s Minister of Finance had to sanction no less than 137 agents of his administration. The charges against these employees revolved essentially around the production of false receipts and the embezzlement of revenue.
- These agents, usually deployed in public revenue collection stations, fabricated false documents attesting to the payment of collected revenue into state coffers, although these funds did not appear anywhere in the treasury books.
- MTN and Orange will hope to eliminate most of these lapses.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer
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