More than 570 businesses in Mandalay were found to be remiss in paying their taxes and were given ultimatum by an internal revenue inspection team to settle their arrears immediately, a senior revenue official said on Monday.
U Aung Moe, deputy director of Internal Revenue Department in Mandalay, said the erring businessmen were uncovered during a random inspection of business establishments in Pyigyitagun township.
“When we inspected the businesses in Pyigyitagun township 570 businesses was found of evading tax. This number is only up until October 13 and we still have three more days before we finish our inspection,” he said. “We expect the number of tax evading businesses in the area to reach 700.”
Among the erring business establishments were factories, shops, commercial buildings for rental and dry goods and food shops.
“Every business that has income of K2 million must pay commercial tax. The building rentals found in Pyigyitagun have monthly income of K2 million. These kinds of businesses must pay tax. For now, they have been warned to pay tax,” he said.
U Aung Moe said that there is a total of 4,576 business establishments in Pyigyitagun township that regularly pay their taxes based on the internal revenue statistics.
U Thein Aung, a local house building materials seller in Mandalay, underscored the need for business establishments to pay correct taxes so the government can improve infrastructure that could ease doing business and attract more customers.
“We need to increase tax collection as a government needs money to develop many sectors in the country,” he said.
“The needed money for development projects can only be obtained from the tax. As for the government, it needs to reduce some taxes for convenience of the business owners,” he added.
After the sweep in Pyigyitagun township, the international revenue team will proceed to Maha Aung Myay and Amarapura townships to inspect the businesses in these areas.
Source: Myanmar Times
To see the original article click link here
