GICAM worried about banana and timber exports

According to forecasts by Cameroon’s business leader organisation, GICAM, “the primary sector will play an important role” in Cameroon’s economic growth in 2014, “despite the threats to banana and timber exports in which activities have faced immense cash-difficulties due to the accumulation of VAT credits and bottlenecks at Douala Port,” stated GICAM president, André Fotso in Douala at the opening of GICAM’s 117th general assembly.

According to the business leader body, in late December 2013, the total amount of VAT credits the State is expected to pay out to Cameroonian companies is estimated to be 52 billion FCfa, of which 12.5 billion FCfa has already been approved and is awaiting disbursement.

The non-reimbursement of these VAT credits, which is the balance between the VAT paid by the company at the time of the acquisition of their goods and services and that collected by the latter from clients, explains GICAM, obstructs company cash-flow and blocks investment.

In order to address this recurring problem between the State and the business community, the president of GICAM, during a recent interview with the Ecofin agency, suggested that the Cameroonian government should launch “specific bond loans” in order to raise the funds needed to reimburse the VAT credits for which non-payment has negatively impacted their efficiency and competitiveness.