Government Delegate to the KCC, Victor Nkelle Ngoh
The Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, David Koulbout Aman, has maintained a ban he placed on the Kumba City Council, KCC, over the collection of a FCFA 1.500 park fee from commercial motorcycle riders.
Koulbout renewed the ban in the course of deliberations at the administrative and management accounts session of the KCC recently.
According to the administrator, the security and sustenance of public order in the Division cannot be sacrificed on the altar of revenue collection.He explained that, considering the complex nature of Kumba, the City Council must halt such collections until a mutually agreed time.
The SDO argued that, even at the level of the riders, there exists mistrust. He said, until new executives are elected for the riders across the three Subdivisions, nobody should think of going to the road to collect any money.
The prefect drew the attention of the audience to the fact that, in case of any public demonstration or strike in Meme, questions would be directed to his office and not the City Council.
Councillor Bonaventure Leke had raised the question for Councillors to be abreast with the actions being taken so that the City Council could continue collecting the tax.
Reacting to the issue, KCC scribe, Henry Shey, said other councils nationwide were peacefully collecting the tax without any problem. He said his colleague at the Bamenda City Council informed him recently on the fact that the tax was giving the Bamenda City Council much revenue.
Shey said, initially, the fee was FCFA 3,000 before a Presidential decree slashed it to FCFA 1,500.
Earlier, the Government Delegate, Victor Nkelle Ngoh cited the suspension of the collection of the park fee by the SDO as one of the reasons why the revenue of the Council was still limping.
Ever since a Presidential ordinance of July 7, 2014, brought about changes in the amount payable as global tax and park fee, bikers in Kumba have refused to comply.
On October 3, 2014, hundreds of commercial motorcycle riders took to the streets demanding the cancellation of the park fee.Invited to a session at the Kumba II Council on October 7, 2014, riders’ executives accepted the changes brought about by the Presidential decree, but argued that the park fee was unknown to them.
Joseph Njam, Meme Divisional President of Bike Riders during that 2014 Council session, told the 2ndAssistant Prefect, Yongkhuma Gamsi, that his peers took to the streets because the park fee was instituted only in Kumba. Njam argued that the riders do not benefit anything from the City Council, not to talk of identification numbers or jackets.
The Chief of Taxation for Meme, Nititop Tsapfack, said the move was aimed at cushioning the effect of the hike in petroleum products on the Cameroonian economy.
Nititop told the Council authorities in 2014 that Section C114 of the General Tax Code stipulates that the park fee is for the City Council,while the global tax is for the Subdivisional councils.
By November 2015, the KCC launched a sensitisation campaign preparing the minds of the riders on the imminent collection of the fee in 2016.
When the collection was launched in January 2016, the commercial motorcycle riders took to the streets in thousands protesting against the fee.
They were later called to the SDO's office for dialogue. A few weeks after, the Council sort the services of Gendarmes to implement the collection of the fee, yet, the bikers chased away the revenue collection teams from the road.
Till date, the administration is apparentlylooking for a solution that will be void of disturbance of public peace.
