National Assembly 7th Ordinary
Session of the 6th Legislature
Laotian Finance Minister Somdy Douangdy admitted a substantial
decline in tax and excise revenues this year as a result of the global
financial crisis; therefore, the government would need more foreign aid to
balance the budget.
In his address to the Seventh Session of the National
Assembly’s Sixth Legislature, Mr. Somdy said that during the first eight months
of the current 2008-2009 budget year, 2,186.9
billion kip in tax and excise revenues have been collected, accounting for
60.41 per cent of, and much lower than, the targeted plan.
Under the current fiscal plan, tax and excise revenues account
for 47 percent of the national budget.
The minister said the decline was attributed to the global
economic downturn which has caused big drops in Laos’ exports and foreign
investments.
He added that revenues collections from taxes and duties
levied on forest concession saw the largest drop with only 27.94 billion kips
collected, well below the planned target of 100 billion kips.
ADB representatiave and Lao officials sign aid agreements, December 2008
Revenues from other sources also dropped, with 1,408.68
billion kips collected from imports and exports taxes, accounting for 62
percent of the target, and 98 billion kips from land leasing or land
concessions or 42 per cent of the target.
According to Mr. Somdy, the government had approved a spending
budget of more than 10,647 billion kips for the current fiscal year, and so far
roughly 6,186.33 billion kips, or 58.1 per cent, have already been spent over
the last eight months, creating the need for the government to increase lending
from abroad to balance the budget.
For the current fiscal year, the Lao government had expected
to receive no less than 2,307 billion kips in foreign aid and loans. The international community has provided Laos more than 777
billion kips in grants and a total
of 936.14 billion kips in loans for the last eight months.
For
more details in Lao, listen to Songrit’s report.
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