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Cambodia: $1.5 billion collected as VAT till Nov 2022; June most rewarding
The Royal Government of Cambodia collected $1.5 billion in value added tax (VAT) for goods and services in the first eleven months of 2022.
According to a report by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the revenue collected comes to over 92 percent of the 2022 annual plan. June was the most rewarding month for VAT last year with a collection of more than $157 million.
The General Department of Taxation (GDT) also collected about $131 million in January, $114 million in February, $141 million in March, $135 million in April and $141 million in May as VAT.
For July 2022, it collected more than $144 million, nearly $150 million in August, more than $142 million in September, more than $148 million in October and more than $145 million in November, the report revealed.
In fact, in the first eleven months of 2022, the GDT has collected $3.21 billion in all kinds of taxes. This revenue is equivalent to 113.99 percent of the financial plan for 2022.
Compared to the same period in 2021, the tax revenue collected by the end of November 2022 saw an increase of $648.17 million, up by 25.29 percent.
Informal reports, meanwhile, show that tax and customs collection of the government for the entire year of 2022 has crossed $6.1 billion, an increase of 20 percent from $5.07 billion in 2021.
The country has two institutions responsible for collecting taxes. One is the GDT, which focuses on interior taxes such as income tax, salary tax, value added tax and property tax, while the other is the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE), which collects customs duty on goods entering and leaving the country.
The GDT is also expected to have collected $3.43 billion dollars last year, 22 percent higher than the annual budget target, while the GDCE collected $2.67 billion, four percent higher than the target.
Besides, Cambodia is also expected to have received around two million international tourists in 2022, earning about $60 million from visa fees.
The excellent results in the collection of taxes have gone a long way in helping the government’s continued efforts to mitigate the sufferings of the pandemic-hit people such as financing various welfare schemes and also providing help to the affected people during natural calamities like the recent floods.
Prime Minister Hun Sen recently credited the turnaround of the Cambodian economy to the successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic and the reopening of the borders as early as November 2021 — one of the first countries in the region to reopen the economy in the wake of the pandemic.
Senior economist and Director General of the Institute of China Studies at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, Ky Sereyvath, attributed the rise in tax and customs duty collection to an increase in economic transactions which in turn reveals the growth of the Cambodian economy.
While speaking with Khmer Times yesterday, Sereyvath added that it also underscores the efficiency of tax collection.
Meanwhile, Kong Vibol, the Director General of the GDT, recently credited the excellent tax collection of the department in the last several years to the reforms carried out by it over the last 10 years.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501216673/1-5-billion-collected-as-vat-till-nov-2022-june-most-rewarding/