The Treasury's catalogue holds one vehicle record of any relevance. It is called "Frais d'établissement des cartes grises", the cost of issuing a registration certificate, it is published by the Ministry of Transport, and it carries no amount. Its stated authority is the 2024 Finance Law. We read that law. It forecasts three billion FCFA of revenue from registration certificates in a budget annex. It does not set the fee.
So the register tells you nothing about importing a vehicle. What follows is read from the Finance Laws, the General Tax Code, and the single window's own notices.
How customs puts a value on a used vehicle
The invoice is not necessarily the figure the duty is worked out on.
Under the Used Imported Vehicle Identification Control programme, known as CIVIO, the inspection company carries out the customs valuation of used vehicles on arrival, as well as inspecting them. The authorities confirmed this to the World Trade Organization's reviewers in 2023. An abatement of 30% is applied to the taxable value of vehicles not more than seven years old, to encourage renewal of the vehicle fleet.
That abatement is the single biggest lever on the bill, and it is a cliff edge rather than a slope. A seven year old car has 30% knocked off its taxable value. An eight year old car does not.
A word on the administrative scale, because it is the single thing most often got wrong. There are two separate valuations and they belong to two different taxes.
The customs valuation is the one above. It follows the customs code, with the WTO valuation agreement incorporated as written, and in practice it is the inspection company's figure. It is what the duty, the excise and the VAT are computed on.
The mercuriale administrative is something else. It is created by article 546 bis of the tax code and it is the base for registration duty on transfers, not for customs duty. Circular No. 0006/MINFI/DGI/LRI/L of 10 May 2017 sets out how it works, and the rule for imports runs the opposite way to the one people expect: "for imported vehicles, the taxable administrative value is the administrative value set by the scale, increased by handling costs and by taxes". The 20% discount in the same paragraph applies only to transactions inside the country. So on an import the scale value goes up, not down.
We did not find the scale itself. The circular says it is annexed to it, scoring vehicles on make, range and age, but the tax code reproduces the circular without the annex and we found no published copy. It appears to exist only inside the tax administration's filing application.
The duty rate, which we cannot pin down
Under the CEMAC tariff that applied until 31 December 2025, passenger cars paid 30%, and that is the figure every guide still publishes.
We read that tariff, in the Commission's January 2009 edition, which our page on import duty shows is substantially the schedule that was still being applied in 2023. Heading 87.03 covers passenger cars, and every line under it carries 30%: 8703.10 through 8703.39, petrol and diesel, one driven axle or more. Engine size changes which subheading a car falls under and does not change the rate. There is no separate line anywhere in chapter 87 for a used vehicle. Under that tariff, age affected the excise and never the duty.
The CEEAC tariff replaced it on 1 January 2026, under article twenty-two of the 2026 Finance Law. The Directorate General of Customs, quoted by the National Shippers' Council, puts passenger vehicles in the 5% to 20% range of the new tariff.
These do not reconcile and we cannot settle it. We did not find the text of Decision No. 14/CEEAC/CCEG/XXV/24, which approves the new tariff, or any published nomenclature for it. A change from 30% to 20% on a car is a difference of tens of thousands of francs on a modest vehicle, and anybody telling you a single figure today is telling you more than the published record supports. The worked example below is given at both rates.
Excise duty by age and engine size
This is the part that is certain, and it is new.
Article ten of the 2026 Finance Law, Law No. 2025/012 of 17 December 2025, sets excise on imported vehicles. We read the table on the certified true copy filed by the Presidency. It amends article five of the 2019 Finance Law and article six (2d) of the 2020 Finance Law.
| Vehicle | Age | Excise |
|---|---|---|
| Passenger car, 2,500 cm3 or less | 0 to 12 years | 0% |
| Passenger car, 2,500 cm3 or less | over 12 to 20 years | 12.5% |
| Passenger car, 2,500 cm3 or less | over 20 years | 25% |
| Passenger car, over 2,500 cm3 | 0 to 15 years | 12.5% |
| Passenger car, over 2,500 cm3 | over 15 years | 25% |
| Other utility vehicles, buses, trailers, tractors other than agricultural, any engine size | 0 to 15 years | 0% |
| Other utility vehicles, buses, trailers, tractors other than agricultural, any engine size | over 15 to 20 years | 12.5% |
| Other utility vehicles, buses, trailers, tractors other than agricultural, any engine size | over 20 years | 25% |
| Vehicle running on compressed or liquefied natural gas | Any age | 0% |
Three things follow from that table.
Engine size matters, but only at one threshold and only for passenger cars. At 2,500 cm3 or below, a car has twelve clear years before excise applies at all. Above 2,500 cm3, excise starts at 12.5% from new. A 2,400 cm3 car of ten years pays nothing. A 2,600 cm3 car of one year pays 12.5%.
Age matters more than anything else. The schedule is a staircase, not a ban.
And the rate is not the whole charge. Article C 83 (2) of the tax code adds a council surtax of 5% of the excise principal. A 12.5% excise actually costs 13.125% of its base, and a 25% excise costs 26.25%.
The excise base is not the vehicle's value. Article 138 (2) sets it at the taxable value plus the customs duty. So the excise is charged on a figure that already includes the duty, and the VAT is then charged on a figure that includes both.
The tax code's own annex still prints the old ages
The 2026 General Tax Code contains the schedule twice, and the two versions do not match.
Article 142 (7) a, which sets out what the medium excise rate applies to, agrees with the Finance Law: passenger cars of 2,500 cm3 or less from over 12 years to 20 years, passenger cars above 2,500 cm3 from 0 to 15 years, other utility vehicles from over 15 to 20 years.
Annex II of Title I, which lists the goods subject to excise at all, still prints the previous bands. It carries passenger cars over ten years old, passenger cars of 2,500 cm3 or less from over 10 to 15 years, utility vehicles from over 15 to 25 years, passenger cars of 2,500 cm3 or less over 15 years, and utility vehicles over 25 years. Ten, fifteen and twenty-five years, against the twelve, fifteen and twenty of the operative text.
Neither printing is marked as superseded. The operative article and the Finance Law agree with each other, so that is what this page publishes. But a car of thirteen years is caught by one printing and not the other, and the volume gives a reader no way to tell which governs.
The verification tax, and the procedure that replaced PIVO
Since 1 July 2025 an import verification tax of 29,813 FCFA, VAT included, applies to each used vehicle imported into Cameroon. The single window publishes the figure and explains that it covers both the inspection company's verification and the compulsory CIVIC identification control. It is a flat amount per vehicle, not a percentage, so it weighs heaviest on the cheapest cars.
The procedure around it changed. The PIVO procedure, the single consolidated form used for years, was removed permanently from the e-FORCE platform following the 2025 Finance Law, Law No. 2024/013 of 23 December 2024, article eleven, which implements articles 53 and 62 of CEMAC Regulation No. 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 21 December 2018.
The single window sets out seven steps. Registration in the importers' file or a special authorisation from the Ministry of Commerce. A mandate to a licensed customs broker, which is a regulatory requirement and not an option. An import declaration lodged on e-FORCE before any clearance formality, compulsory above 1,000,000 FCFA FOB value. The cargo tracking note from the National Shippers' Council. The shipping form, with make, model and chassis number, which generates the CIVIC request. Then the customs declaration in CAMCIS, which can only start once the CIVIC is obtained. Then payment, receipt and release at Douala or Kribi.
Importing above 1,000,000 FCFA FOB without a prior import declaration carries a fine of 50% of the taxable value of the goods. The single window notes that the penalty applies even where the rule was genuinely not known.
One exception worth knowing. Owners of used vehicles may lodge a customs declaration in their own name and on their own account, which the general rule does not allow. That is the position the WTO recorded in 2023. The single window's March 2026 notice states that using a broker is compulsory. We cannot reconcile the two and we have not found the instrument that changed it.
Registration duty, collected at the border
An imported used vehicle also attracts registration duty, and this one is a tax administration charge collected through the customs system rather than a customs duty.
Transfers of used vehicles must be registered. Registration duty is charged at the medium proportional rate, which article 342 of the tax code and the schedule at article 543 set at 5%. The base is the transaction value declared by the buyer, floored by the administrative scale described above, which on an import is that scale's value increased by handling costs and taxes.
Registration must happen within three months. For an imported vehicle the circular counts that period from the date of the detailed declaration discharging the vessel. Missing it costs a droit en sus under article 321, which is a penalty equal to the duty itself.
There is also a stamp duty on the registration certificate, and this one is published. Article 551 of the tax code sets it at 3,000 FCFA per unit of fiscal horsepower, or part of one, on the certificates of entry into circulation of motor vehicles subject to registration and on their transfers. For utility vehicles, meaning those with a payload above 1,000 kg, it is 1,000 FCFA per unit. For motorcycles and mopeds the minimum is 3,000 FCFA.
Article 546 quinquies of the tax code provides that for imported used vehicles the registration and stamp duties are liquidated and collected through the customs administration's computer system, on behalf of the tax administration. That is why they turn up in the clearance bill and get mistaken for customs duty.
The axle tax no longer exists, whatever you are told. Chapter VIII of the tax code is still headed "Taxe a l'essieu", and every article under it, 609 through 612 bis, reads "Supprimé" in the 2026 edition. It was a quarterly tax on vehicles with a payload of three tonnes or more, it is gone, and it should not appear in any import quotation.
The 2026 volume has not finished removing it, which is why people are still quoted it. Article 542 (2) still tells businesses in a specialised tax unit where to file and pay it. The annexes still print the 2014 ordinance that set its tariff, 4,500 FCFA a quarter up to 37,500. And the 2017 circular on used vehicles, reproduced in the same volume, still instructs its readers that vehicles of three tonnes and over are liable to it "in application of articles 609 and 610", two of the articles the same book says are suppressed.
A worked example
A used passenger car, fifteen years old, 2,000 cm3, bought in Europe. The inspection company puts the taxable value at 3,000,000 FCFA. The car is over seven years old, so there is no 30% abatement. At fifteen years and under 2,500 cm3 it falls in the 12.5% excise band.
The duty rate is the open question, so here it is at 20%.
| Line | How it is worked out | FCFA |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable value | Inspection company's valuation | 3,000,000 |
| Customs duty | 20% of 3,000,000 | 600,000 |
| Excise base | 3,000,000 + 600,000 | 3,600,000 |
| Excise | 12.5% of 3,600,000 | 450,000 |
| Council surtax on excise | 5% of 450,000 | 22,500 |
| VAT base | 3,000,000 + 600,000 + 450,000 | 4,050,000 |
| VAT | 17.5% of 4,050,000 | 708,750 |
| Council surtax on VAT | 10% of 708,750 | 70,875 |
| Community integration tax | 1% of 3,000,000 | 30,000 |
| OHADA levy | 0.05% of 3,000,000 | 1,500 |
| Customs IT fee | 1% of 3,000,000 | 30,000 |
| Import verification tax | Flat, VAT included | 29,813 |
| Total duties and taxes | 1,943,438 | |
| Registration duty | 5% of the declared transfer value | 150,000 |
| Total paid to the state | 2,093,438 |
At a 20% duty rate the state takes 69.8% of the vehicle's taxable value. At 30%, which is what the old tariff charged, the same car comes to 2,497,686 FCFA, or 83.3%.
Four notes on that table.
The registration duty line assumes the declared transfer value equals the customs taxable value. It need not, and on an import the floor is the administrative scale value increased by handling costs and taxes, which we could not look up. Treat 150,000 as an illustration of the rate, not a quotation. The registration certificate's own stamp duty is not in the table either, because it runs on fiscal horsepower rather than value: at 3,000 FCFA per unit, a 10 CV car adds 30,000 FCFA.
The verification tax is flat. On this car it is 1.0% of the value. On a 600,000 FCFA car it would be 5.0%.
Nothing here is the shipping. Nothing here is the clearing agent, the port, the terminal or the storage. Those are set out on the import duty page, and most of them are private invoices rather than state charges.
And if the car had been eleven years old instead of fifteen, the excise line, the surtax on it, and the excise component of the VAT base would all be zero. At a 20% duty rate its duties and taxes would be 1,384,313 FCFA against 1,943,438. Four years of age costs 559,125 FCFA, which is 18.6% of the value of the car.
What you pay every year afterwards
These are recurring taxes on holding the vehicle, not costs of importing it, and they are regularly quoted as though they were part of the clearance bill.
The vehicle stamp duty is annual, under articles 594 to 598 of the tax code. It is collected by the insurance company when the civil liability policy is taken out, not at the border, and the insurer must issue a payment certificate generated by the tax administration's system.
The 2026 volume creates this duty twice and the two copies disagree about when the year starts. Articles 594 to 598 are in the state part of the book. Articles C 58 to C 62, in the local taxation part, institute the same duty in the same words, with the same rates and the same exemptions, because the money goes to the councils. Article C 60 says the period runs from 1 January to 31 December of the same year. Article 596 says it runs from 1 January of each year to 31 December of the following year, which is a period of two years and cannot be what is meant. We publish the single year.
The public transport column covers vehicles carrying people and goods for hire.
| Fiscal horsepower | Public transport | Other vehicles |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 7 CV | 15,000 FCFA | 30,000 FCFA |
| 8 to 13 CV | 25,000 FCFA | 50,000 FCFA |
| 14 to 20 CV | 50,000 FCFA | 75,000 FCFA |
| Over 20 CV | 150,000 FCFA | 200,000 FCFA |
The public transport rates apply only on production of a transport licence properly issued by the competent authority. Motorcycles pay 10,000 FCFA for two wheels and 15,000 FCFA for three, except that motorcycles of two fiscal horsepower or more pay at vehicle rates. Diplomatic and consular vehicles, temporary admission vehicles used on international cooperation projects, trial vehicles on WG plates, transit vehicles on WT plates, police and military plates, ambulances and administrative vehicles are exempt.
What is exempt or abated
Electric vehicles and motorcycles of the listed tariff subheadings, and vehicles running on compressed or liquefied natural gas, are not subject to excise at all. That is article 131 bis of the tax code as amended for 2026.
New electric vehicles and motorcycles of those subheadings, with their batteries and charging points, get a 50% abatement on their taxable value for twenty-four months. That is article six of the 2025 Finance Law, Law No. 2024/013 of 23 December 2024.
Parts and components imported by vehicle manufacturing and assembly firms get a 50% abatement on their taxable value for ten years from 1 January 2024, under article six of the 2024 Finance Law, Law No. 2023/019 of 19 December 2023. The firm must have signed an agreement with the customs administration undertaking to pass the benefit on to consumers.
Is there an age limit?
We found none in any Finance Law we hold, covering 2021 through 2026, and none in the 2026 tax code.
What exists instead is a tax escalator. The 2026 schedule above charges nothing on a passenger car under twelve years, 12.5% from twelve to twenty, and 25% beyond twenty. That is a policy of pricing old vehicles out rather than prohibiting them, and the single window says so in terms, noting that over 92% of vehicles in circulation in Cameroon are more than fifteen years old.
If an age limit exists in a decree or an order of the transport or trade ministry, we have not found it, and we would rather say that than repeat a figure we cannot source.
What we could not verify
The duty band for passenger cars under the tariff now in force. The nomenclature of that tariff is not published anywhere we could reach, and the customs administration's own website cannot be read over a verified connection, as described on the import duty page.
Whether a private owner may still clear a vehicle without a broker.
Whether the 30% abatement for vehicles under seven years survives into 2026. The source for it is the WTO's 2023 review recording what the authorities said at the time. We did not find it in a Finance Law, and the 2026 excise schedule reorganised the age thresholds around twelve, fifteen and twenty years without mentioning seven.
What the registration certificate costs to have made. The stamp duty on it is published, at article 551, and set out above. The processing fee is a different thing: the Treasury's catalogue holds that record, under the Ministry of Transport, and publishes no amount for it. A stamp duty and a processing fee are not the same charge and we will not add one to the other.
The administrative scale itself, so the registration duty line in the worked example is a rate and not a quotation.
Sources
Every document was read on 21 October 2026 unless another date is given.
- Law No. 2025/012 of 17 December 2025, Finance Law for 2026, article ten for the vehicle excise schedule and article twenty-two for the tariff. Certified true copy filed at prc.cm, held in this repository. Read from the page images of the archived scan and checked against the finance bill published by the Budget Directorate on 26 November 2025, whose table is identical.
- Law No. 2024/013 of 23 December 2024our copy, Finance Law for 2025, article six on electric vehicles and article eleven on import declarations. Certified true copy, held in this repository.
- Law No. 2023/019 of 19 December 2023our copy, Finance Law for 2024, article six on the vehicle assembly industry. Certified true copy, held in this repository.
- General Tax Code, 2026 editionour copy, impots.cm. Articles 131 bis, 138, 142, 276, 321, 342, 542, 543, 546 bis, 546 quinquies, 551, 552, 594 to 598 quinquies, 609 to 612 bis, C 58 to C 62, C 83, and Annex II of Title I. Circular No. 0006/MINFI/DGI/LRI/L of 10 May 2017 is reproduced in the same volume, without its scale annex. Held in this repository.
- Tarif des douanes de la CEMAC, the January 2009 edition published by the CEMAC Commission. Chapter 87 for the duty on heading 87.03, and the community integration tax section for Additional Act No. 03/00-CEMAC-046-CM-05 of 14 December 2000. Read from the copy served as a plain PDF by the Gabonese customs administration at douanes.ga, held here at sha256 eb8bf1347f35a4b2fe524eb76e5f6616c237acee0e04c361ce615db250d9cade, and not republished by us because it is a commercial edition under an ISBN with the Commission's rights reserved.
- Guichet Unique du Commerce Extérieur, guichetunique.cm, "Used Vehicle Importers: the PIVO procedure has been abolished", published 6 March 2026 and marked updated March 2026, for the verification tax, the seven step procedure and the penalty.
- World Trade Organization, Trade Policy Review, CEMAC countries, WT/TPR/S/445, 16 August 2023, Annex 1 Cameroon, paragraphs 3.3 and 3.18, for the CIVIO programme, the valuation role of the inspection company, the 30% abatement and who may lodge a declaration.
- National Shippers' Council of Cameroon, cncc.cm, on the CEEAC tariff, quoting the Directorate General of Customs.
- Decision No. 14/CEEAC/CCEG/XXV/24 of 18 October 2024. Cited by the 2026 Finance Law. Text not located.
- The Treasury catalogue itself, feed of 18 October 2026, for the registration certificate record.
There is no online Journal Officiel for Cameroon. prc.cm is the de facto gazette, and it is where the Finance Laws above are filed.
If a figure here is wrong, tell us. The method is written out at how we verify.
Page updated 21 October 2026