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Cambodia: COVID-19 scuppers Kingdom’s taxman
The General Department of Taxation (GDT) has cautioned that the COVID-19 outbreak will drive down the revenues they are able to collect in the coming months. It potentially scuppers their target of collecting $2,886 million in tax revenues this year, a 20 percent increase on 2019.
Speaking at the Obligation of Tax on Income, E-Filing System and New Invoice Format seminar held in Phnom Penh this week, Kong Vibol, GDT director-general
said that the virus continues to create a global economic slowdown and has a knock-on effect on the local economy.
“We are closely monitoring the situation because we don’t know when the outbreak [of COVID-19] could come to an end – it may take a month, two months or even a year. Whatever the outcome, it will affect revenues we take in tax collection,” he said.
Mr Kong paid particular attention to the detrimental effect the virus is currently having on both the country’s tourism and garment-manufacturing industries.
“The government has taken measures to manage the situation in the affected sectors, with aims to sustain the country’s economic growth and that includes our cooperation over the payment of taxes,” he said.
Last month, in a bid to support the hospitality sector’s falling income as visitors stay away, the government announced that all registered hotels and guesthouses in Siem Reap will be exempt from all taxes from February until May this year.
Meanwhile, a raw material shortage, mostly caused by a faltering of imports from China, is throwing the garment industry into a fiscal fug.
According to latest Ministry of Tourism (MOT) figures, in 2019, the Kingdom earned around $4.91 billion from international tourism revenues, up 12.4 percent on the previous year. However the MOT are predicting that the “COVID virus effect” will knock at least 10 percent off that income.
In other measures to ease the financial downturn, the government has decided to temporarily cancel the 4 percent stamp tax on all residential properties under $70,000 until January next year.
The government has forecast the Kingdom’s real economic growth at an average of 6.1 percent this year, down a percentage point on last year. Other factors precipitating the fall include the trade war between China and the United States, climate change and the partial withdrawal of the Everything but Arms (EBA) trade deal between Cambodia and the European Union.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50698138/covid-19-scuppers-kingdoms-taxman