|
23. Exemptions and Reliefs; The government may grant tax exemptions and reliefs to any taxpayer or on any kind of commodity or service. It may also prescribe the maximum amount of sale or service-receipt not chargeable to tax threshold. The list given below shows the threshold for each kind of sale proceeds or turnover, up to which Commercial Tax may not be charged. These thresholds do not apply to Government or State sector, or the sale of personally manufactured salt.
(a) On the sale of manufactured goods Ks. 240000
(b) On the passenger receipts of water or road transport Ks. 180000
(c) On the sale proceeds of merchandise Trading Ks. 30000
Local Tax
24. Withholding Tax; Withholding tax is collected different rates as shown below;
Non-resident Tax Rate
Resident Tax Rate
Interest
15 -
Royalty
20
15
Fee (Government contracts
3.5
3
Development contracts
Co-operative society contracts)
Fee (Payment to foreigners and foreign
companies, statutory body such as
companies, NGOS, INGOS)
3.5
3
25. Double Taxation Agreement; The Union of Myanmar had signed seven agreements for avoidance of double taxation with the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia and enter into force with United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Custom Department
26. Role of customs Department; The customs department is carrying out the following duties and functions;
(a) to protect the free and fair competition in the market for the emergence of market oriented economic system which is being implemented by the State.
(b) to protect the national economy, national culture, national health and national character,
(c) to investigate and take proper actions on the illegal importation and exportation,
(d) to enforce the rules and regulations in connection with the external trade,
(e) to levy the Customs duties and other charges on the exports and imports in accordance with the provisions of existing laws, and
(f) to compile the necessary external trade data for the State economic plans.
27. Measurement for Customs Reform; As the development of external trade is partly linked with the facilitation of legal trade. The Customs Department is carrying out the implementation trade facilitation by reforming the Customs Laws and Regulations. As a result, Myanmar became the 109th member of the World Customs Organization on 25th March, 1991. Myanmar tariff Law was enacted in line with the market-oriented economic system in 1992. In addition, Myanmar has adopted the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (H.S), which is an international standard nomenclature for classification of goods and compilation of the external trade data since 1st April 1992. The H.S (1996 Version) was implemented on 1st January 1996. With respect to Tariff Reform for supporting the market-oriented economic system, the Ministry of Finance and Revenue endeavored to reduce the tariff rates, which scaled a maximum of 500% and a minimum of 0% with effected from 1st June 1996.
28. Myanmar became a member of ASEAN on 23rd July, 1997 to be able to carry out the implementation of economic and trade co-operation in the region and became a contracting party to the ASEAN Agreement on Customs. Myanmar is participating in the implementation of the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme (CEPT Scheme) which is the main mechanism for realizing ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). As a member nation of ASEAN Myanmar has fulfilled her commitments in accordance with the Tariff Reduction Plan staring from 1999.
29. The Green Lane System, which is aimed to facilitate the flow of the goods shipped from ASEAN ports, was also introduced. As Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) must be eradicated within the five years period, after the implementation of CEPT Scheme, Myanmar Customs Department is now preparing to introduce more simplified and effective ways and means on the following matters;
(a) WCO valuation agreement,
(b) The Customs Practice on Facilitation of Goods in Transit,
(c) ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN) and
(d) Post Clearance Audit
30. To fulfill Myanmar’s Commitments to ASEAN for the liberalization of trade, CEPT Scheme for AFTA was established. According to the CEPT Scheme, tariff lines were reduced to the lower Customs rates form the existing Customs rate yearly since 1999. According to the CEPT Scheme for 2004, altogether 513 tariff lines listed in Inclusion List (IL) were reduced to the lower rates from their existing rats as follows;
(a) 16 tariff lines were reduced from 40% to 20%,
(b) 15 tariff lines were reduced from 30% to 20%,
(c) 111 tariff lines were reduced from 20% to 15%,
(d) 239 tariff lines were reduced from 15% to 10%,
(e) 84 tariff lines were reduced from 10% to 5%, and
(f) 48 tariff lines were reduced from 7.5% to 5%. And at the same time, 596 tariff lines listed in Temporary Exclusion List (TEL) were phased into Inclusion List (IL) according to the CEPT Reduction Plan.
|
