Commonwealth tax administrators to meet in Cameroon

“Cameroon’s tax administration has for some years now been heavily criticised for being not only tedious in methods and procedures but also too burdensome on investors and potential tax payers,” asserted the Herald Newspaper.

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

However, authorities of the country’s general directorate of taxes say government has since the attainment of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative end point, considered instituting reforms to render the tax system more investment friendly in a bid to incite investment and bring about economic growth.
It was revealed in a recent press conference that the tax department of Cameroon would host an annual conference of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators, CATA, from 9 to 14 October, in Yaounde.
In course of the conference over 100 senior tax officials from 46 member states of CATA will share experiences from their different tax administrations and also exchange on ways of enhancing good practices in tax procedures and methods.
Taxation official say the themes of the deliberations, “The role of taxes in economic development” and “New information technologies: perspectives and challenges in the fiscal sector”, tied with the tax reforms that government is already instituting in its tax system. The two themes according to officials were proposed by the Cameroon tax administration. Thus the deliberations during the conference would not only help in proposing solutions to problems in Cameroon’s tax system but would also help the authorities examine the ground covered in the recent tax reforms and seek possible ways forward.

Cameroon’s director general of taxies, Laurent Nkodo said after hosting the conference of Francophonie taxation officials in 2002, it was incumbent on Cameroon to also host those of the Commonwealth and tap from their experience and methods.
CATA was created in Barbados in 1977 during a conference of Finance ministers of the Commonwealth. The association has as objectives to promote exchange of experiences on good practices in tax administrations of member countries. This is done through technical conferences, assistance programmes, training programmes and reflections on pertinent questions of tax methods and procedures.
Cameroon became a member of CATA in 1997 two years after joining the Commonwealth of Nations in 1995. The country became represented in the management organ of the association since 2006.