The headquarters of the General Department of Taxation. Post Staff
The Cambodian government has set a goal to exit the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by the end of 2029.
The national budget is a crucial financial resource for the government to use in developing human resources and accelerating national economic growth.
In light of the importance of collecting resources for national development, the General Department of Taxation (GDT) held an April 21 workshop at the National Tax School to explain the “Revenue Mobilization Strategy of the Royal Government for the 7th Legislature of the National Assembly and the 2024–2028 Strategic Plan and Action Plan of the General Department of Taxation”. The event was presided over by Bun Neary, deputy director-general of the GDT, with 150 leaders and officials from the department in attendance.
Neary noted that the aim of the workshop was to broadly promote the revenue mobilisation strategy of the seventh-mandate government, and the GDT’s strategic and action plans for 2024–2028, in order to raise awareness and encourage responsible and effective implementation.
“Overall, our strategy is designed to continue the reforms of the 2019–2023 strategy and ensure economic growth, fairness and equity in tax payment, increased revenue and improved revenue management efficiency to meet the government's expenditure needs for implementing the first phase of the Pentagonal Strategy,” she said.
Hong Vanak, an economist at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, told The Post on April 24 that all governments require budgets to develop their countries through investments in human resources, infrastructure and various other expenditures.
Effective and transparent revenue collection and management not only ensure sufficient funds for development but also enhance competitiveness in the business sector. He added that to make revenue mobilisation effective, both implementers and taxpayers must understand and comply with the law.
“Tax revenue is the lifeblood of a nation. Therefore, effective and transparent revenue mobilisation helps set and achieve national development goals,” he added.
Prime Minister Hun Manet has explained that the strategy continues public finance reform efforts from previous phases (Phase I: 2014–2018, Phase II: 2019–2023), aiming for sustained economic growth, fairness and equity in taxation, increased revenue, and improved collection efficiency to meet expenditure needs under the first phase of the Pentagonal Strategy.
He noted that the strategy is built on five key principles:
- Ensuring economic growth by creating a favourable business environment and promoting trade activities;
- Not introducing new taxes or raising tax rates, except for excise taxes on goods and services harmful to public health, society and the environment, while continuing incentive policies that are targeted and well-considered and ensuring tax collection measures are non-overlapping;
- Strengthening responsiveness to taxpayers through the use of technology and improving the code of conduct for tax officials;
- Designing a minimal set of strategic, efficient revenue-generating measures that avoid economic distortion while ensuring fairness and equity,
- Encouraging private sector involvement to ensure comprehensive, realistic policies that support a modern, efficient and transparent revenue system capable of meeting development needs and socioeconomic infrastructure growth.
“Based on these principles, the revenue mobilisation strategy will continue to serve as a vital policy framework for Cambodia’s socio-economic development. It emphasises the use of advanced technology — especially information technology — and aligns with a vision of digital tax administration that is clean, intelligent, capable and continuously adaptive to achieve high-income country status by 2050,” he said.
According to the 2025 Budget in Brief from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the government plans to collect 31.598 trillion riel ($7.7 billion) in revenue in 2025.
It will come from three main sources: 1. Tax revenue of 26.418 trillion riel (10.146 trillion from customs duties and 16.272 trillion from domestic taxes); 2. Non-tax revenue of 3.971 trillion riel (from management of state assets and other sources); 3. Other revenue of 1.209 trillion riel (from domestic and foreign sources, including budget support and external financing).
