Deputy PM advises on revenue collection at Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge
Deputy PM advises on revenue collection at Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, MrSomdyDuangdy, has advised customs officials at the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge in Vientiane to collect as many taxes as possible in the last three months of the fiscal year.
During a visit to the bridge on Thursday, MrSomdy examined a report on revenue collection at the border.
Head of the customs checkpoint, MrVongvanphengPhoumsavanh, said customs officers were ordered to collect 192 bil lion kip in revenue in the last three months o f the 2015-16 fiscal year. Initially, the expected revenue would total 2.5 billion kip a day - about 60 billion kip a month or 180 billion kip over three months.
A reduction in revenue collection resulted from a change in the location of customs duty collection to the Thanalaeng checkpoint, he said. Vendors are no longer declaring their goods at the checkpoint at the bridge, further reducing the amount of revenue generated.
Currently, customs officers at the bridge collect tax and customs duties on fuel, food products and vehicles. But they attribute the addition of the Thanalaeng checkpoint to a deficit in revenue of 2.4 b illion kip a month, or 7.2 billion kip in the three month fiscal quarter.
Another issue faced by customs is that more people have resorted to using their passports to pass the checkpoint instead of the usual transit pass, which results in a reduced fee for persons crossing the border because they can enter under the guise of travellers instead of traders.
However, despite these difficulties, the targeted amount of customs duty has been collected.
In October, customs officials collected 69.93 billion kip or 36.42 percent of the three month plan, equalling 109 percent of the monthly plan.
Some 65.26 bi llion kip, or 93.28 percent of the revenue came from duty on imported fuel, 2.3 billion kip was earned from the import of vehicles, 1 billion kip was collected from people crossing the border, and 1.3 billion kip was paid on consumer goods.
To further increase the amount of revenue collected at the bridge, MrVongvanpheng said the government has implemented the Provision on the Levy of 10 Percent Value Added Tax of Passengers' Personal Effects, dated August 30, 2016.
The provision stipulates that upon entry through border checkpoints, including international airports, Lao citizens or expats living in Laos shall pay 10 percent of the value of new or used personal effects, in the form of Value Added Tax (VAT). The tax is exempted for infrequent passengers who travel less than twice a month and bring in items worth less than US$50.
We began to collect VAT on November 1 and received total revenue of 2.2 million kip from 32 vehicles, MrVongvanpheng said.
MrSomdy advised customs officers at the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge to pay special attention to revenue collection in the last three months of the fiscal quarter to achieve the target set in the plan.
Customs officers at the Thanalaeng checkpoint should also collect as much revenue as possible because it is an important source of income, he added.
