(Business in Cameroon) - In a letter addressed to the Tax Managing Director, Modeste Mopa, the Cameroonian Finance Minister, Louis Paul Motazé, ordered the suspension of the “tax adjustment measures undertaken” on life insurance companies. This means the minister is calling the tax administration to suspend all retaliatory measures initiated against insurers who have not complied with the new provision of the 2019 Finance Act, introducing VAT (19.25%) on life insurance products.

“Insofar as an inappropriate enforcement of the tax law could have irreversible consequences touching the survival of the insurance companies concerned, I invite you to postpone the execution of the tax adjustment measures initiated on these companies, pending the outcome of the consultation” with the insurers, writes Louis Paul Motazé who said the tax measure is strongly rejected by insurance companies.

On the other side, some administrative law experts are wondering whether a member of the government can suspend the application of a provision contained in the finance law passed by Parliament and promulgated by the Head of State. But this is not the first time that the provisions of a finance law have been readjusted by the Ministry of Finance. An example is the tax amnesty granted in 2016 and 2017 to taxpayers subject to the payment of property tax, whereas the payment of this tax was prescribed in the Finance Act.

BRM