What is Phone Tax in Cameroon & How it will be Calculated & Collected by Mobile Network Companies in Cameroon
A few days ago, it was announced that Cameroonians (as from October 15, 2020) will begin paying a 30% tax levied on mobile phones via the Mobile network companies in Cameroon.
This announcement was made in a joint communique signed by the ministers of Post and Telecommunications and of Finance, authorities.
According to the communique, the new move falls in context with the 2019 finance law.
Going by article 7 of the said law, all imported Mobile telephones as well as electronic or digital tablets will be taxed.
The article adds that enterprises involved in the sector “… are required, in collaboration with the competent State services or their agents, to configure their systems in such a way as to avoid any connection to their respective networks by non-custom phones and tablets.”
After the announcement was made, many Cameroonians have taken to the social media platforms to protest against the phone tax using the hashtag #ENDPHONETAX.
Some celebrities like Wax Dey, Daphne… have also called on the government to end the controversial phone tax which has sparked widespread criticism.
In response to the social media protest against phone tax in Cameroon, Posts and Telecommunications minister, Minette Libom said the change is not in the cost of phones, but the manner of taxing the product, which is the introduction of a digital system adding that nothing has really changed.
According Minister Minette Libom, the finance law only stipulates that telephones as well as digital tablets will henceforth be subject to a telephone levy, as part of the customs fee. What has been done for this purpose is to dematerialize this tax by setting up a digital mechanism” she tweeted.
She however stated that the mobile phones of travellers temporarily living in Cameroon and who are using their phones and terminals in roaming mode are exempted from the said levy.”
Like Minister Minette Libom said, this controversial phone tax was levied on Mobile phones since 2019 and Cameroonians (either directly or indirectly) have been paying the phone tax without expressing any grievance.
This has cause some Cameroon government officials to ask. WHY NOW???
The government of Cameroon has only adopted a new way of collecting customs duty (phone tax) levied on mobile phones.
Rather than paying custom duties in cash via the corrupt custom officials (who have been helping importers to invade phone tax), importers of mobile phones will henceforth be required to pay custom duties “digitally” via the mobile network operators in Cameroon (as from the 15th of October, 2020).
According to the government, this new method of phone tax collection, will greatly reduce evasion of phone tax as the mobile network operators in Cameroon are required (by law) to configure their systems to suit and ease the collection of phone tax in Cameroon with zero possibility of tax evasion.
Somebody may likely want to ask, how will the phone tax be collected by the mobile network companies in Cameroon (MTN Cameroon, Orange and Nexttel Cameroon) ????
Every mobile phone, GSM modem or device with a built-in phone / modem, manufactured by any company in the world (be it Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Alcatel, Hwawei etc), has a unique 15 digit IMEI number; which is often used to track the location and name of current user of a particular phone. Based on this number, the mobile networking companies can also check some information about the device, e.g brand or model of a Mobile.
If you Dial *#06# on your phone, the IMEI number of your phone will be displayed on the screen.
How will the Mobile Network companies in Cameroon go about it?
When you insert a Sim card in to a phone which has never been used with the mobile network operators in Cameroon, the first thing the network operators will do, is to harvest the IMEI number of the phone and store it in their database.
So MTN, Orange and Nexttel have a record of the IMEI number of all the phones which have been used to access their networks before the implementation of the new phone tax collection method (on or before the 15th of October).
How IMEI Number of Mobile Phones can be used to enforce Phone tax in Cameroon.
In countries like USA, if you borrow a huge amount of money (in credit) from the mobile network companies, and don’t pay your debt after a certain period of time, the mobile network companies can block the IMEI number of your phone.
When this happens, nobody will be able to use the phone with the network, till that dept is paid.
I foresee the government adopting this same strategy (with the help of the network operators) to collect phone tax.
Simply put, as from the 15th of October, 2020, if the mobile network operators detects that a phone with an IMEI number (not on their database) has access their network for the first time, they will send that customer an invoice of customs duty which the customer is expected to pay as phone tax within a specific time frame (probably via Mobile money in to government coffers).
If the network subscriber fails to pay the phone tax after a specified time frame, the IMEI number of the phone will be blocked. In other words the network on the phone will seize (as in flight mode) till the pending 33% phone tax is paid.
However the million dollar question which some Cameroonians have asked is, how will the mobile network operators in Cameroon know the price of the newly imported mobile phones in order to effectively tax importers of Mobile phones???
How will the Mobile Network Operators in Cameroon Determine the Price (custom value) of your phone and calculate phone tax.
Like i mentioned earlier, by using the unique IMEI number assigned to a phone, the mobile network operators in Cameroon can get tons of information about your phone. They may get to know such data as: the network and country from which your device originally comes from, warranty information, date of purchase, carrier information, system version, device specification and more detail information.
With the above information, its very easy for the network operators to know the brand and model of any phone used to access their network… and this will enable them to check the market value of the phone to be able to calculate your phone tax.
For those of your who don’t know, phone tax is calculated as 33% of the price of a mobile phone (custom value).
This means paying around 50,000 CFA francs ($88) in taxes for a mobile phone of around 150,000 CFA francs ($268).
For importers of Mobile phones to prevent themselves from being taxed or billed wrongly, they are expected to guard the receipts of their phones jealously as it may be requested by the network operators for justification if an importer thinks he has been billed wrongly or got a wrong phone tax invoice from the Mobile network companies.
Cameroonians will also be expected to verify if the tax of a newly imported mobile phone has been paid by the phone dealers before purchasing a mobile phone from a phone shop or else they may end up paying the phone tax after buying the phone (which is double expenditure).
Phones with two simcard slots often have two IMEI number but 1 serial number. In a case of a phone with two SIMs, the serial number will be used to bill the importer to avoid the double billing.
How to calculate Phone tax in Cameroon for an Unknown phone
By following the procedures, you can calculate the phone tax of any imported phone and send tax invoice to the importer.
- Get the IMEI Number of the phone
- Visit imei.info and enter the IMEI number to get the brand and model of the mobile.
- Google the brand and model of the Mobile Phone to get market value of the phone.
- Get your calculator and calculate 33% of the price of the mobile phone. That will be the amount of money you will be expected to pay as phone tax in Cameroon.
How Tax on the Download of Apps will be collected in Cameroon.
The government has also announced that Cameroonians will also be expected to pay tax for the download of Mobile phone apps.
I,m still trying to figure out how this tax will be collected, given the fact that most Cameroonians are fund of downloading free apps from the Google play store.
Nevertheless, our ears are still on the ground. We shall bring you more information as the story unfolds.
To conclude this post, i will like to make it clear that, phone tax (customs duties for Mobile phones in Cameroon) have been in existence since 2019 and most importers of mobile phones are aware of this fact.
However, most Cameroonians have not felt the impact of this phone tax because most importers have been invading phone tax in Cameroon with the help of some corrupt customs officials in Cameroon.
Now that the government has adopted a stricter measure of collecting phone tax in Cameroon. The prices of mobile phones is bound to rise as there’s no way any importer will be able to evade phone tax. The phone dealers will probably try to shift the phone taxes to their customers by putting high price tags on Mobile phones.
Make some 419 person no fool you say if e flash your phone, you no go pay phone tax or e fit configure your phone so that you can avoid paying phone tax in Cameroon.
Another reason why this new method of collecting phone tax is bound to increase the prices of phones in the market (as from the 15th of October) is because all the phones in the mobile phone shops, which have never been used to access any of the Mobile networks in Cameroon, will be subjected to phone tax, except a phone dealer has receipts to proof that custom duties were already paid for the Mobile phones.
So if you be buy some niang niang Iphone 11 way you be di wait for usam na for December, know say Yawah don gas.
However the mobile phones of travellers temporarily living in Cameroon and who are using their phones and terminals in roaming mode are exempted from the said levy.”.
Ok i don come to end of this article. Our ears are still on the ground. We shall bring you more information as the story unfolds.
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