Energy investor contributes to national revenue
Energy investor contributes to national revenue
Electricity developer Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE) has provided 335.36 billion kip (US$43.78 million) in contributions to national coffers since revenue began flowing from the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) dam last year.
The amount includes about 175.65 billion kip in contributions to national revenue in 2011, and another 42.39 billion kip in 2012, according to a corporation report released yesterday.
An official of LHSE said the contributions to national revenue also included corporate income tax totalling about 24.07 billion kip in the first six months of this year, and the enterprise's net profit of about 76.59 billion kip in advance. He said one of the contributions was the first dividend tax of 2013, worth about 16.66 billion kip.
“So in the first six months of this year, we have already contributed about 117.32 billion kip to the national revenue. We handed over that money to the Ministry of Finance two weeks ago,” he said.
The LHSE was created by the Lao government in February 2005 to facilitate investment in energy generation.
Its first investment was in the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) dam, and it now holds a 25 percent share in the NT2 Power Company Limited (NTPC).
NT2 is the single largest project ever developed in Laos, with an installed capacity of 1,070 megawatts operating within Borikhamxay and Khammuan provinces.
The Lao government received a much larger amount in royalties from the NT2 dam in 2012 than in the previous years.
LHSE reported recently that the government received almost 119.3 billion kip (US$14.91 million) in royalties from the project last year.
In 2011 the government received about 93.3 billion kip (US$11.66 million) in royalties from the project.
The NTPC also paid out a large amount of money for salary tax, grants for social and economic development, irrigation schemes, national events and education.
It is expected the government will earn more than 15.6 trillion kip (US$1,953.29 million) from the project over the 25 year concession period, the report noted.
The LHSE is now a shareholder in many power plant projects generating electricity for export and local supply.
vientiane times
