The General Department of Taxation (GDT) has reiterated a call for more concerted efforts from all stakeholders to ensure effectiveness, compliance, transparency and accuracy in tax matters.
The latest plea comes after a fresh series of cases were discovered through a GDT app, where taxpayers had submitted fake documents and stamps, resulting in losses for state coffers, the department said in a statement obtained by The Post on June 9.
The department called on “relevant institutions” to use GDT Check & Track to “contribute to the prevention of document fraud, tax evasion and fraud”.
The GDT said it has set proactive work rules and introduced a series of apps and other IT systems to, inter alia, strengthen good governance, service delivery, and tax revenue collection.
At a June 8 workshop, the department’s director-general, Kong Vibol, said GDT Check & Track would allow taxpayers to check the status and authenticity of a wide range of documents, monitor tax receipts and revenues, and verify the identities of tax officials – including those managed or engaged with through other apps.
Available on Android and iOS 11.0 or later, the app provides a means to prevent fraud, tax evasion, unnecessary complications for property owners, and losses in state revenue from stamp duties and other taxes, Vibol said.
He called on relevant ministries and institutions to scale up cooperation with the GDT to boost efficiency in revenue collection, strengthen good governance in and improve the administration of government bodies, and above all maintain macroeconomic stability and a good business environment for fair market competition.
Royal Academy of Cambodia economics researcher Ky Sereyvath noted that tax evasion and discrepancies in revenue collection were nothing new, but voiced optimism in the GDT’s IT-driven tools’ ability to curtail tax evasion and other kinds of fraud, “because everything is in the hands of the leaders of this economic institution”.
“The victims of tax leakage and evasion are those who pay taxes, especially the stamp duty associated with the sale of land and other real estate … and the government loses revenue, which leaks into the pockets of delinquents,” he said.
