Cambodia collects $3B in tax revenue in H1
Cambodia collects $3B in tax revenue in H1
The government generated $2,909 million in revenue from tax and customs in the first half of 2024, representing 46 percent of the target set for 2024, a report from the Ministry of Economy and Finance showed on Monday.
The country has two institutions responsible for collecting taxes, namely the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE), which collects taxes on goods entering and leaving the country, and the General Department of Taxation (GDT), which focuses on interior taxes such as income tax, salary tax, value added tax and property tax. Both come under the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The GDT earned $1,710 million in tax revenue, representing 48 percent of the target set for 2024 while GDCE earned $1,199, representing 44 percent of the target set, the ministry said in the report.
GDCE’s tax income collection not reached as planned was due to declining imports of mixed goods, especially vehicles, which continue to decline, while people are also in saving mode to control their spending, the ministry added.
Implementation of a free trade agreement is also a factor affecting contributing customs revenue collection, it said.
According to the Ministry of Economy, GDCE lost nearly $200 million in revenue from the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and between ASEAN and other ASEAN partners in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2023.
Regarding the GDT’s decreasing tax collection, the ministry said that it was due to income tax and VAT that local goods and services fell sharply.
Based on the performance in the first half of this year, the ministry said the collection of tax revenue by the end of this year will miss the target set for 2024.
“Tax revenue collection throughout 2024 could reach more than $5 billion, or 85.5 percent of the 2024 financial plan due to the income tax collected in the first half of 2024 did not meet the target,” the ministry said.
The target set for tax income in 2024 is more than $6.2 billion.
In 2023, the General Department of Taxation collected $3,600 million in tax revenue, 101.13 percent of the 2023 plan and the Director General of Customs and Excise of Cambodia earned about $2,288 million, or 82.4 percent of the plan.
