Govt enforces measures to collect revenue
Govt enforces measures to collect revenue
The government has highlighted measures to boost revenue collection while ensuring budget expenditure is disbursed in an effective manner.
Minister to the Prime Minister's Office and Government Spokesman, DrChaleunYiapaoher told Lao media recently the meeting held between the government cabinet and provincial governors in Vientiane last Friday agreed to focus more on addressing financial liquidity.
“We have to strongly enforce our existing measures to ensure revenue collection accomplishes our target,” DrChaleun said, saying one of the important things is to identify clear sources of revenue while addressing financial leaks.
The government was aware the country's revenue shortfall in recent years had emerged partially as a result of tariff exemptions on fuel and vehicles.
“In the future, tariff exemptions on these items must be approved by the National Assembly,” he said. But he did not clarify the amount of national revenue lost from fuel and vehicle tariff exemptions each year.
Concerning budget expenditure, the government is committed to prioritising its spending, while avoiding carrying out development projects without the National Assembly's approval.
“We must prioritise our development projects and not carry out too many projects at the same time as it will cause delay to some of our projects,” DrChaleun said.
Earlier this year Prime Minister ThonglounSisoulith instructed various sectors to tackle the budget deficit and sidestep formulating spending plans without thinking how to source money to balance the deficit and pay debts.
The government was aware that all provinces required large budgets to develop infrastructure but the government was unable to meet all their needs due to revenue shortfalls.
Despite revenue shortfalls, the government is committed to prioritising the paying of officials' salaries.
In April this year the National Assembly approved the government's proposal to reduce the 2015-16 fiscal year budget following the country's failure to collect sufficient revenue over the previously six months.
This meant the plan for revenue collection for this fiscal year was adjusted down from 26.159 trillion kip to 23.7 trillion kip and budget expenditure from 31.946 trillion kip to 31.118 trillion kip.
The move came after revenue collection over the previous six months of this fiscal year amassed only 8.013 trillion kip, equal to 30.6 percent of the yearly plan.
Over the past five years, despite global economic recession, the Lao economy grew at the pace of 7.9 percent and the number of poor families has declined significantly.
Gross Domestic Product has reached 102,320 billion kip (US$12.8 billion) with GDP per capita climbing to 15.8 million kip (US$1,970).
The government forecasted the country's economy would continue to grow at a rate of not less than 7.5 percent over the next five years which would be driven by mega investment projects.
