Douala Mayor sets new measure to improve tax collection

(Business in Cameroon) - The Mayor of Douala announced the rollout of a new measure aiming at identifying businesses operating in the city.

According to available information, business owners are required to display “(on the window) in front of their premises the trade name, district and borough, the place where the activity is carried out, the NIU (unique identification number) and a QR code containing this information".

Business owners who do not comply with this new measure will be sanctioned and fined up to CFA25,000 for individuals, and CFA100,000 for legal entities, we learned. Mayor Mbassa Ndine said the system will help fight urban disorder, and control advertising media per the city regulations. It should also enable the decentralized territorial authority to better collect the revenues related to this activity. By making it possible to better identify economic actors, the new system should also facilitate the collection of local tax revenues.

As a reminder, the introduction of geolocation of advertising boards in the city of Douala, in early 2021, had doubled the advertising fees collected by the Urban Community between July 2020 and July 2021.

BRM