The General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia (GDCE) reported that it collected 8.2587 trillion riel, or $2.0268 billion, in the first nine months of 2022, up one-fifth year-on-year. This is equivalent to 78.8 per cent of the full-year target set by the 2022 Law on Financial Management of around $2.58 billion.
Broken down by revenue types, value-added tax (VAT) on petroleum products amounted to 0.2812 trillion riel, other VAT sources 3.1047 trillion riel, special tax 3.1453 trillion riel, customs duty 1.5596 trillion, and export tax and other fees 0.1679 trillion riel.
Categorised by products, vehicles and machinery accounted for the most, at 3.8896 trillion riel, followed by assorted merchandise (2.2069 trillion), petrochemical products (1.6836 trillion), and construction materials and other fees (0.4785 trillion), according to the GDCE, which is under the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
GDCE director-general Kun Nhem underscored that improving the effectiveness of customs revenue collection would require officials to step up efforts to better fulfil their tasks.
Some areas of improvement to focus on, he said, include: the optimisation of technical and law enforcement functions; prevention of and crackdowns on tax evasion, anti-money laundering and terrorist financing; auditing and risk management; trade facilitation-oriented updates and simplifications of customs procedures; cooperation with other institutions; and human and institutional development.
Ky Sereyvath, an economist at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, attributed the uptick in customs revenue to growing domestic demand for international raw materials used in exports, along with other goods, including vehicles, machinery, construction materials and electronic devices.
“Considering the country’s current economic growth rate, imports and exports will increase further,” he told The Post on October 13.
Cambodia Chamber of Commerce vice-president Lim Heng stressed that the increase in revenues collected by the GDCE and other government agencies highlight the strong performance of exports and domestic consumption.
As a general rule given their limited production capacity, developing countries have high demand for imported products to fuel development, he said. Case in point: demand for imported steel remains high in Cambodia despite the presence of steelworks, he noted.
“Increasing tax revenues are a good sign of economic growth and vibrant activity in all production sectors,” he said.
