(Business in Cameroon) - On January 11, Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze signed a release extending the deadlines for tax declarations and payments in the country's major cities: Yaounde, Douala, Bamenda, and Limbe.
"The deadlines for the declaration and payment of taxes counting for the first quarter of 2021, legally set for the 15th of each month for these taxpayers, are postponed respectively to the end of months as follows: January 31, 2021, February 28, 2021, and March 31, 2021," the release read.
According to Mr. Motaze, this exceptional measure is taken because of the initiation phase of the E-tax procedures. He explains that the E-tax procedures will first be implemented in the said four major cities and then extended to the divisional tax centers of regional capitals from April 1, 2021, and to all the remaining divisional tax centers from July 1, 2021.
The direct consequence of this extension is that there will be delays in the implementation of a major reform prescribed by the 2021 finance law to secure state revenues. Indeed, the law now prohibits the payment of taxes and duties in cash and orders divisional tax units to adopt the digital payment methods already in use in specialized management units. It also consecrates the introduction of electronic receipts and notifications, therefore eliminating manual receipts, which favor frauds.
Sylvain Andzongo