CAMBODIA: Ministry to submit rubber tax reduction proposal

In a bid to attract more investors to the sector, the Ministry of Agriculture is working on a proposal to reduce taxes on rubber exports.

Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon said one of the points included in the proposal is that shipments valued at less than USD 2,000 per ton should not be taxed. Currently, the government levies USD 50 in tax duty per ton of rubber exported if it is priced between USD 1,000 and USD 2,000 per ton. USD 100 is charged if the value exceeds USD 2,000 per ton. Shipments of rubber valued at less than USD 1,000 per ton are not taxed.The proposal will be submitted to Prime Minister Hun Sen in the near future, the minister said.

The ministry’s proposal seeks to appease players in the rubber industry, who for years have demanded that the government reduce taxes to bring down production costs. Lim Heng, vice-president of An Mady Group, a company that owns rubber plantations in the Kingdom, welcomed the move. “If approved, this proposal will help the rubber sector a lot by reducing production costs. Right now, we are working with very small profit margins,” Heng said. “Revising taxes on rubber exports will help companies in the sector survive,” Heng said.

There are 129 companies involved in the rubber business in Cambodia, 30 of which are harvesting and exporting rubber. Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture show that from January to October rubber exports amounted to 161,527 tons, an increase of 23 percent compared to the same period in 2017.

Source: Daily “The Khmer Times”, Phnom Penh; 18 Jan 2019
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)