RDF support government institutions in 12 countries to progress on digitalization. In this month’s newsletter, we will focus on RDF’s impact in Cameroon.

In Cameroon, the deadline for companies to sutheir tax returns have passed. Over 40,000 companies have now submitted through the RDF GovIn portal e-service to DGI, the tax authority. This is over 30% more than last year, and late submissions still keeps coming in.

Systems installed

• GovIn e-service portal, where companies acess their electronic forms to submit
• RD Fusion, where data from all tax-related data sources are collated, including the submission online.
• TAS, the new RDF tax administration system that is under develpoment with tax accounts and integration with payment services.

Electronic Tax Returns

The GovIn e-service portal allows DGI to design electronic forms, and designate them to companies depending on their type and the tax office they belong to. There are separate tax returns for the banking sector for example, and for small companies. When they login to the portal through DGI website “Télédéclaration”, they will access all their forms and start completing them. They can also subvmit via API directly from their accountnig system, or even manually upload it from an Excel template. Once finalized and submitted, GovIn calaulates the taxes due and issues an invoice. This can be paid using the new online payment service called “OTP” or “e-Guce”.

Rollout to Small Companies

Over the last two years the number of large firms participating has remained at 15,000 reaching its cap. Small companies were introduced in 2020 and have doubled every year since, now reaching over 25,000.

Online Payments

GovIn and TAS is now integrated with the OTP payment service, where tax payers can pay their tax bills online. When companies submit their tax returns (DSF), GovIn generates an invoice with the tax payable amount and sends it to OTP for payment, receiving a payment confirmation back. In TAS, we have added tax accounts with a ledger of all debt outstanding and taxes paid.

TAS matures as tax admin solution

TAS now includes a company profile with tax accounts, ledger and dashboard. TAS users also have tools to manage all submissions, analyze specific reporting areas and divide their work based tax offices. Together with GovIn and the payment service integration tools, it is taking shape as a mature solution for tax authorities that wants to offer efficient e-services.

Risk Management and Audits

The RD Fusion risk management system includes a data warehouse integrated with all tax related data sources. It compares specific data across datasets to automatically assign compliance rating to companies, based on discrepancies it finds across 7 key risk indicators. DGI can now select the companies most likely to have compliance issues for tax audits. These audits can be managed in the system through a step-by-step procedure involving different users collaborating to audit and document compliance issues.

Collaboration with impact

RDF have been working with DGI since 2015, supported by GIZ, the German international development agency. Our supports is part of a larger programme to modernize public finances in Cameroon, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This year, funding has also been provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has added key features to TAS and broaden the impact of the systems.

Our work has been successfull largely because of the hard work of the DGI DSF Working Group, with full backing from the DGI leadership. RDF is also collaborating with IMF technical advisors, who have been very helpful supporting the effort.

Other highlights

• In Ghana, we have started using automation in order to help the Minerals Commission process the huge number of applications coming in through the Ghana Mining Repository portal.
• In Senegal, the EITI report 2020 was made entirely using Fusion data anlysis. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy also started managing gas pipelines in OGAS.