The Association of Insurance Companies of Cameroon (ASAC) has appealed to the government on the need to remove the Value Added Tax (VAT) applied to life and health insurance.
Cameroonian insurers are concerned about the application of VAT on life and health insurance while the penetration rate remains marginal in the country, with barely 2% of underwriting. An ASAC delegation led by Théophile Gérard Moulong went to meet ASAC President Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on July 2, 2019, to inform the government of the interest represented by the abolition of this tax. .
And for good reason, the application of VAT on life and health insurance is “a taxation of savings that had already been taxed since it is a savings on salary.” In other words, the application of this VAT “actually results in the disappearance of term life insurance if nothing is done”.
And yet four months ago, the Ministry of Finance announced the suspension of VAT on these insurance as part of the “tax relief measures initiated” on life insurance companies. Which logically should save any payment to insurers in accordance with the new provision of the Finance Act 2019, instituting VAT (19.25%) on life insurance products.
Beyond the “suspension”, the ASAC advocates for the “clear and clear removal of VAT on life insurance and disease”, a question of avoiding “reactivation” of this measure according to the situation.
