LOST LEVY

Prime Minister Hun Sen has quashed suggestions from within his own party that televisions and radios should be taxed. The premier rejected the proposed levy Tuesday, after the idea was floated last month by Cambodian People’s Party parliamentarian Chheang Vun, who is chairman of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Media and Information. “Please set this idea aside,” Hun Sen said in a speech this week at the National Forum on Climate Change. “I want people watching TVs and listening to radios, so do not tax them.” Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann welcomed the prime minister’s comments. Cambodians get their information on news and events through their television and radio sets, he said. “The government could collect taxes by many other means,” he said. Mao Ayuth, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Information, estimated that between 60 and 70 percent of the national population has access to televisions or radios.