Parliament calls for full revenue collection
National Assembly members have called for the government to do more to seek new revenue sources and fully collect revenue following last fiscal year’s revenue shortfall despite there being numerous income generating sources. Members of parliament put forward the requirement when debating the government’s proposal to revise the next four-year National Socio-economic Development Plan that seeks to lower economic growth targets following last fiscal year’s failure to meet the growth target. In the fiscal year that ended in September, only about 95 percent of the targeted revenue of 23.7 trillion kip was collected. The government is also asking parliament to lower the annual economic growth target from at least 7.5 to 7.2 percent. NA members agreed that many new enterprises had been registered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, but revenue recollected by the Ministry of Finance was far short of the potential. I noted that there have been considerable increases in new registrations with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce but the taxes collected by the Ministry of Finance are probably less than 50 percent, NA member for Xayaboury province Mr Chattava Keokhamphet said. He recommended that the government, specifically the finance ministry, carry out a survey to identify revenue sources.
