Cambodia's tax revenues increase state coffers by 1.3 bln USD

The Cambodia's General Department of Taxation (GDT) has collected about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in taxes in 2015, a 25 percent rise year-on-year.

At a seminar in Phnom Penh, GDT's director general Kong Vibol said the increase was not a result of an increase in the tax rate, which has remained unchanged, but rather that businesses are now more aware of their tax obligations, helping boost collection this year.

"We want the private sector to understand their tax obligations and we encourage more of them to register with the GDT and get involved in the culture of paying taxes," Vibol was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying on Wednesday.

The increase in tax collection comes as welcome news for the Cambodian government, which has earmarked 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in spending for 2016, according to the recently passed national budget.

For the upcoming year, Vibol said the GDT expected to increase its collection to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, adding that the tax on profit could fuel this increase.

Opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party chief whip and lawmaker Son Chhay said that even though tax revenues have increased, the GDT needs to use more information technology tools to improve collections, particularly with respect to value-added and property taxes.

"The collection is not uniformly implemented, as big enterprises still owe the government back taxes and most tax collectors just try to collect the planned tax collections for the year," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Revenues collected by the GDT did not include the revenues of the Customs and Excise Department. Enditem