Customs department sets higher revenue target

Customs department sets higher revenue target

The customs department is aiming for duty collected this fiscal year to be about 25 percent higher than last fiscal year.

The Ministry of Finance's Customs Department Director General, Mr Athsaphangthong Siphandone, said they hope revenue will reach 5,071 billion kip this fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2014.

“However, this target is a big challenge for our department,” MrAthsaphangthong said when speaking at a meeting last week.

He said revenue earned from customs duty last fiscal year was 95.55 percent of the planned figure, which was about 16 percent more than in fiscal year 2011-12.

The Ministry of Finance rep orted recently that revenue collection during the 11 months from October 2012 to August 2013 had fallen considerably short of the target, reaching only 78.38 percent of the plan, which had a target of more than 19,500 billion kip.

The ministry attributes the failure to unfavourable global economic circumstances and an overly-optimistic target, which was 27.15 percent higher than the amount set for fiscal year 2011-12.

The ministry's report said revenue earned from taxes amounted to 79.58 percent of the plan, revenue from tariffs amounted to 84.43 percent, taxes collected from enterprise management amounted to 80.89 percent, while revenue sourced from state asset management was 80.97 percent of the target.

The ministry admitted that revenue collected in the11-month period was far below that achievedin 2011-12, when the amount collected was 92 percent of the target.

vientiane times