(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroonian authorities are carrying out a study on tax expenditures to assess the costs and advantages of tax exemptions for the state, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed in its Country Report No. 20/48 focused on Cameroon.

The institution also estimates that the suppression of some of the exemptions will increase revenues and reduce corruption risks. However, it continues, as most of them are applied to basic food products like fish, rice, wheat, and milk, “the security and socio-political situation makes it difficult to reduce them.”  

Let’s note that the government is making arrangements, in the 2021 finance bill being drafted, to reduce tax expenditures. In that regard, it plans to increase customs duties on rice and fish from 5 to 10%, 0 to 5% for wheat, and 5 to 30% for maize and soya meal. It also intends to reinstate VAT for butane.

Sylvain Andzongo