As part of the government's efforts to increase tax revenue, online tax payment systems will be available starting from February 2018

As a part of the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government’s efforts to increase tax revenue, the Ministry of Planning and Finance will take its first step into us­ing a technology based tax collection system. The Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) will be utilized to make online payments starting in February 2018, U Maung Maung Win, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Finance said at the Pyithu Hluttaw meeting held on September 30.

The Myanmar Payment Union was organized by state owned and pri­vate banks in 2011 with the purpose of providing ATM and POS switching services among the vari­ous banks in Myanmar. MPU cards have been in use since September 14, 2012. As a result, all bank card holders can with­drawal and check their balance and withdraw their funds at any MPU ATM.

MPU’s virtual payment platform services such as mobile baking, mobile payment, and electronic payments using Central Bank of Myanmar’s NET System’s Customer Credit Transfer Function will be deployed for accept­ing government tax pay­ments.

At the meeting in Sep­tember, the Deputy Min­ister responded to ques­tions raised by Daw Cho Cho Win, a Member of Parliament from the Mawlite constituency in Sagaing Region, about what plan the ministry has to make sure that all taxes received will go to the appropriate public budgets according to the Commercial Tax Laws.

U Maung Maung Win responded with, “Busi­ness in the Thilawa Spe­cial Economic Zone at the outskirts of Yangon have been using the MPU payment system with­out problem so far. The ministry is now work­ing together with Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) and Myanmar Economic Bank to collect taxes on­line via online payment platforms.”

The businesses in Thil­awa Special Economic Zone, received a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). Using the TIN, any kind of tax like corporate tax, commercial tax, and withholding tax, can be paid online.

“We will start collecting taxes using MPU cards in Yangon, Mandalay and Napyidaw as part of a first phase. Business classified as large or medium size tax payers will be able to start using online tax pay­ment system in February 2018,’’ he said.

In order to pay online, the company needs to have an account with a member bank of the My­anmar Payment Union’s (MPU) e-commerce sys­tem, according to tax specification of Thilawa SEZ.

During a second phase, small businesses and in­dividual tax payers will have access to the system.

Tax payments are car­ried out on paper base system which is time con­suming, while online tax payments will only take a few minutes. Taxpayers can pay taxes via the on­line payment platform no matter where they are or what bank they do busi­ness with. They can pay taxes online as long as their bank is a member of Myanmar Payment Union (MPU).

There are 18 types of taxes in Myanmar, ac­cording to the Internal Revenue Department, and majority of tax col­lection are from income tax, commercial tax and stamp tax (sales tax).

(Myanmar Business Today: https://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/online-tax-payments-available-soon )

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