Taxes, Fuel Prices To Increase Despite Completion Point

By Bongben Leocadia

Economic analyst, Babie Kossana, has said taxes and fuel prices would increase because the Cameroon government will still have to raise money to fund projects determined and controlled by international financiers and donors.

Kossana made the statement during a press conference organised at the Freidrich Ebert Foundation recently, on the implications of attaining the completion point.

Comparing Cameroon with other countries that reached the HIPC completion point earlier, and whose debts are channeled directly to their treasury, Kossana said the situation of Cameroon is particularly preoccupying as a result of the high rate of corruption that drains about 40 percent of the budget.

He said the "snowball" expectations from the debt relief, which corresponds to a meager 10 percent of the budget cannot solve the problems of the country in terms of roads, employment and infrastructure. 

Reflecting on the formulation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, PRSP, the economist said although Cameroon's document was of high quality, there was a wide gap between the paper and reality on the ground.

He expressed dismay that government and financial institutions presented the document as 'a promised land' and later budgetary irregularities forced government to eliminate tax exonerations on certain commodities. 

Kossana though the most important thing is the cancellation of the external debt, there is, however need to restore the economy through independence. He lamented that financial institutions are mostly concerned with macro-economic equilibrium without much thought about the service it would do a country.

Alluding to the Head of State's speech on the completion point with respect to the triennial programme with the IMF, Kossana said with the attainment of the completion point the credit becomes meaningless, emphasising that the loan, which is unsubstantial, should have been stopped.

He also pointed out that it would be disastrous to increase salaries without knowing the exact number of workers. This would be to the disadvantage of old workers, while new entrants would benefit and ghost workers would continue to grab large sums at the expense of the state.

Francis Menjo Baye, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Yaounde II, while highlighting the advantages to be derived from the completion point said debt relief liberates donors from inefficient 'defence lending' and fosters private investment.

Comments

[Fritzane Kiki Hong Kong]

Cameroon no doubt has passed the exam completing the point.But what remains is the peoples' individual plight and excrutiating poverty.I think handling huge funds and other financial aids to these corruptive government officials who squander it will not help resolve nor improve on the civilians standards of living.I think projects should be carried out by these foreign donors in infrastructures and other macro and micro projects and investments to foster developments,provide employments and reduce poverty from the grassroot in the country.

Those stooges of LRC don't care about the injustice and poverty disparity and therefore cause more harm than good to these suffering masses whose misery increases as they go poor and poor while the rich gets richer and richer everyday.I think the foreign donors should try and reach out to these poor majority and solve their infrastructure problems and standards of living than putting trust and offering more funds to these perpetrators of crude dubious activities,greed,corruption and exploitation of LRC.

Fritzane Kiki
Hong Kong

[Fritzane Kiki Hong Kong]

Cameroon no doubt has passed the exam completing the point.But what remains is the peoples' individual plight and excrutiating poverty.I think handling huge funds and other financial aids to these corruptive government officials who squander it will not help resolve nor improve on the civilians standards of living.I think projects should be carried out by these foreign donors in infrastructures and other macro and micro projects and investments to foster developments,provide employments and reduce poverty from the grassroot in the country.

Those stooges of LRC don't care about the injustice and poverty disparity and therefore cause more harm than good to these suffering masses whose misery increases as they go poor and poor while the rich gets richer and richer everyday.I think the foreign donors should try and reach out to these poor majority and solve their infrastructure problems and standards of living than putting trust and offering more funds to these perpetrators of crude dubious activities,greed,corruption and exploitation of LRC.

Fritzane Kiki
Hong Kong