(Business in Cameroon) – On April 7, Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze issued a decision outlining the rules for distributing and allocating several specific levies from the mining sector. These measures cover various charges, including surface royalties, land concession fees, ad valorem tax levied on the value of goods sold, and extraction tax.
Specifically, 65% of surface royalties will go to the public treasury. The remaining 35% will be distributed as follows: 3% to the Mining Sector Development Fund, 3% to the Fund for the Restoration, Rehabilitation, and Closure of Mining Sites and Quarries, 8% to the Ministry of Mines, 5% to the National Mining Company (Sonamines), 8% to the General Directorate of Taxes, and 8% to the Ministry of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure.
The Treasury will also collect 65% of the land concession fees, with the remaining 35% split among the same entities. The same distribution formula applies to the extraction tax, but with a few exceptions. In this case, 3% is allocated to communities neighboring mining sites, 5% to the local municipality, 1% to the Mining Sector Development Fund, and 1% to the Site Restoration Fund. The General Directorate of the Treasury and the General Directorate of Taxes will each receive 4%, while 10% is reserved for staff of the Ministry of Mines, 1% for the national consular chamber responsible for mining, and 6% for Sonamines.
For the ad valorem tax, the allocation varies depending on the type of operation, specifically semi-mechanized artisanal mining versus small-scale and industrial mining. For artisanal mining, the Treasury collects 50%, Sonamines 7%, the Ministry of Mines 10%, staff from the treasury and tax departments 10%, the Presidency 2.5%, and nearby municipalities 10%. Additionally, 5% is earmarked “for the task force tasked with managing and building the state’s strategic gold reserve,” according to the finance minister.
For small-scale and industrial mining, 2% of revenues are shared equally between staff at the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s Office, while the Treasury retains 65%. The remaining balance is distributed among the same agencies previously mentioned.
This measure, along with a related decree on distributing non-tax revenue from the mining and industrial sectors, aims to address the legal vacuum created by the absence of specific implementing regulations, as stipulated in the Mining Code passed in December 2023.
Ludovic Amara
