(Business in Cameroon) - The Minister of Finance (Minfi) Louis Paul Motaze (photo), announces that his department will carry out in collaboration with other administrations, an audit of service revenues. The information is contained in the circular containing instructions for the implementation of the 2020 Finance Act.

By service revenues, the circular means the sum of all charges, defined by the legislation, levied on users in return for a public service rendered to them by a public body (ministries, companies, and public institutions).

Within the framework of this audit, “administrations will provide the Ministry of Finance (financial controllers) all the texts governing the operation of the existing departments within their structures,” the circular indicates.

According to Louis Paul Motaze, the aim of this audit is to improve the collection of non-tax revenues. The Minfi has also prescribed measures to revitalize the monitoring of service revenues paid into the budget of the state, decentralized local authorities and other public bodies.

 “As for the revenues to be distributed, only the treasury is authorized to credit beneficiaries’ accounts with their shares on the basis of the statement of repayments produced by intermediate revenue officers,” the circular stipulates.

In addition, “detailed statistics on the recovery of service revenue, centralized monthly by each Treasurer-Payer-General in his financial district, must be sent to the Directorate-General of the Treasury by the 10th of the following month at the latest. A copy of these statistics shall also be forwarded to the Regional Financial Controller by the Treasurer-Paymaster General, who shall forward them, on receipt, to the Directorate-General for the Budget,” the text adds.

The circular also requires that detailed statistics of service revenues collected and centralized monthly by each general paying treasurer in his financial district must be sent to the Treasury Directorate General by the 10^th of the following month at the latest. A copy of these statistics shall also be forwarded to the Regional Financial Controller by the Treasurer-Paymaster General, who shall forward them, on receipt, to the Directorate-General for the Budget.

Finally, as prescribed by the Minfi, the departments benefiting from the allocation of all or part of the revenue they generate shall communicate the statement of recoveries and the statement of remainders to be recovered to the Treasurer-Paying General territorially competent for transmission to the Directorate-General of the Treasury. 

“As regards rental fees, a statement of unpaid amounts will be sent quarterly to the ministry in charge of finance (general directorate of the Treasury) by the competent services of the ministry in charge of the domains,” the Minfi concludes.

This proven will to help improve revenue collection is nevertheless in contrast with the forecasted service revenues. Indeed, for the current financial year, Cameroon plans to mobilize XAF21.6 billion, a XAF7.6 billion drop compared with the XAF29.2 billion forecasted for 2019.  

SA