Myanmar introduces new measure to prevent tax evasion

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YANGON, July 24 (Xinhua): Myanmar has introduced a new measure to prevent private companies' tax evasion by denying the biennial renewal of their business licences on failure to fully settle their outstanding tax payment annually, the local journal Newsweek reported today.
The measure was so taken as the government gained only 56 million US dollars from tax revenue in the fiscal year 2006-07 which ended in March against the projected 300 million dollars, the report said, blaming that 60 per cent of the country's business companies evaded paying tax.
The authorities have stressed the need for collecting tax to be spent on building infrastructures such as road and bridge and other development tasks, urging the companies to fulfil the need of the state.
Statistics show that there are more than 20,000 private companies in Myanmar registering with the ministry of national planning and economic development and are categorised as local- national-owned, foreigners-owned, Myanmar-foreign joint venture, foreign branch companies and import-export companies.
The authorities also blamed some of the companies for delaying their tax payment for years or total tax evasion.
There are five categories of tax collected by the government, namely commercial and service tax, income tax, profit tax, tax for sale of state lottery and stamps.
The figures indicate that the country gained a total of 447.964 billion Kyats (about 373 million dollars) in revenue in 2005-06, a significant increase over the previous years but much lower than targeted, other local media said.
The ministry attributed the lower figures to tax evasion, blaming some companies and individuals for presenting false data about their income for taxation assessment as well as the government's ineffective measures in collecting tax from companies, service providers, restaurants, supermarkets or individuals for the past decade.
However, the finance authorities held that the recent amendments to income and commercial tax laws would not affect the tax rate levied by the government but would ensure that tax collection policy will be more effective and widespread.