Ministry of Planning and Finance will increase tax on imports in order to expand the market of local products instead of importing goods

In an effort to reduce imports, the Ministry of Planning and Finance will levy more tax on imports instead of placing tax on locally produced products with high quality that can replace the imported products, according to U Soe Win, Union Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Finance, during the regular meeting between vice president of Myanmar and local businessmen held at UMFCCI on December 14.

“With the aim of nurturing the manufacturing sector for import substitution, we will raise tax on the products imported even though the same kind of products produced locally are present in the market,’’he said.

However, he did not identify the imported products on which more tax will be placed.

For import of raw materials which are necessary for local industry, the ministry has plans to lower the tax for a certain period, he added.

He also explained the plan of establishing international standard customs warehouse in line with existing international laws and procedures to store imported raw materials and streamline the importation process for local manufacturers to produce value added products locally and export their products.

By doing so, raw material importers can do storing and taking out inventories easily as well as distributing the materials as the market demands while reducing the prices and creating jobs, U Soe Win explained.

Myanmar is hoping to gradually reduce trade deficit, which it sees every year, by improving local manufacturing. Myanmar saw $5.2 billion of trade deficit in the 2017 Fiscal Year, $3.8 billion in 2018 Fiscal Year, $1.03 billion in April-September transitional Fiscal Year of 2018, and $0.33 billion in October of the 2019 Fiscal Year.

(Myanmar Business Today: https://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/government-raise-taxes-imports )

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