Laos impounds over 5,000 illegally imported vehicles during 2015-2016

The Customs Department under Lao Ministry of Finance impounded more than 5,000 illegally imported vehicles in the fiscal year of 2015-2016.

Vehicle and goods smuggling has become a problem for the customs sector, Acting Director General of the Customs Department Bounpaseuth Sikounlabout was quoted by state-run Vientiane Times on Monday, saying that in order to achieve revenue collection according to the plan, they have to pay attention to address the problem.

In 2015-2016, the customs sector set a plan to collect revenue of 2.426 trillion Lao kip (over 297 million U.S. dollars) nationwide but in practice they were able to collect revenue of 1.828 trillion Lao kip (nearly 223.86 million U.S. dollars), accounting for over 75.3 percent of the plan.

More than 5,000 illegally imported vehicles would have generated revenue of 66 billion Lao kip (over 8 million U.S. dollars) for Lao government, he added.

In 2017, the department will increase its efforts in preventing and combating illegal smuggling activities and continue to solve issues surrounding the more than 5,000 illegal imported vehicles, according to the report.

Some of these vehicles were actually destined for ministries, government departments and individuals, but were imported to Laos by vehicle import companies, which failed to follow proper procedures, the department said. Endit