To accelerate local dev't: Gov't urges Mefou-Afamba residents to be dedicated taxpayers.

The session was organised by the Centre External Regional Tax Office. 

The SDO reminded the population that the various services government offers them cannot be achieved if citizens do not pay their taxes.

Kin-Nou Nana said in the past, citizens perceived taxation as something far away, full of complexity, and even unjust. 

He said it is on this score that government has taken the duty to educate the masses on the new tax regulations, ease tax payment by eliminating cumbersome procedures, and introducing proximity taxation, through the use of modern forms of Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs.

With the new system, he said taxpayers can now stay in the comfort of their homes, declare their taxes, raise objections and eventually pay their taxes.

The SDO assured the population that government has decided to carry a sensitisation caravan to the quarters, villages, markets and other public places to educate all and sundry on the new fiscal procedures as they concern payment of local taxes so that no one will have any excuse for not paying his or her taxes, and as at when due. 

Kin-Nou Nana insisted that there is no way strong grassroots governments can be built if the citizens and business operators are tax evaders and tax avoiders.

The administrator advised the population to take every opportunity to upgrade their knowledge on the tele tax declaration system, online methods of registering businesses, paying councils taxes using android phones, and contribute to boosting economic development in the administrative unit. 

Mayors speak out

Some Mayors picked holes in the training session by accusing the government of putting the cart before the horse. 

They told the workshop organisers that the lack of electricity in most of the hinterland villages and its irregular supply in semi-urban centres, defeats the purpose of them being called to adopt digital tax procedures. 

The representative of the Centre Region Tax Office Chief, For Brice Bambela Belinga, said they are ready to provide council officials with all the technical and other forms of assistance needed to ease their work in the field.

The tax administrator told participants that the effort to simplify tax procedures is guided by the need to entrench financial transparency, reduce fraud, and improve overall efficiency in the financial management of councils. 

He drew attention of actors at the local level to the fact that taxes have now been divided into three categories. With the central administration collecting a specific category of taxes, the regional councils collecting theirs, while local councils have their own taxes to collect.

He said the clarification is necessary to avoid the confusion that previously prevailed as to who collects what taxes, and how much.

Some mayors pointed out that even with that division, individual councils still charge different rates for same taxes, creating a situation where some taxpayers run to councils where charges are lower, even though they are operating and doing business out of the council area they got their license.

They also pointed out the case of license to operate a motorbike where charges vary from 5,000 FCFA in some councils to 10 and even 20,000 FCFA in others.

According to the mayors, councils in the most interior parts of the country tend to charge lower for such licenses, while the more a council headquarter approaches urbanization, the rates tend to rise.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3469 of Tuesday June 10, 2025