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Government seeks to boost land revenues
The government still has a lot of potential to increase revenue collected from land use but all sectors need to work in cooperation to enforce the law regarding the issue.
One way of boosting revenue is to expand the computerised system for the collection of land fees throughout the country and another is to improve the efficiency of state services to obtain more fees from land use.
According to the National Land Management Authority (NLMA) this week, revenue collected through various land fees reached 130.7 billion kip for 2009-10, equal to 98.6 percent of the yearly plan.
Despite the revenue from land fees falling short of its target, the NMLA was satisfied with its achievement as revenue from land had increased several times over since its establishment in 2007-08.
In 2009-10, the government set a collection target of 132.5 billion kip but could only manage 130.7 billion kip. For 2010-11, the target was set at 131 billion kip.
Head of the authority's Research Division, Dr Palikone Thalongsengchanh, said the land authority lowered its target because it set too high a target the previous year, which proved impossible to achieve.
The land authority is optimistic that revenue from land use will continue to rise and should make up at least 5 percent of the national revenue in the future, once projects relating to the national land survey and allocation, and the collection of land fees through a computerised system, have been completed.
So far, the computerised system only covers 56 districts, mainly in urban areas of the country. The lack of a computer system has resulted in some villagers knowingly reporting inaccurate figures to the authorities regarding their plots of land in a bid to pay lower taxes or fees.
For instance, some villagers owned up to four plots of land but only informed authorities of one plot when it came to paying taxes.
In countries like Japan and Germany, the income from land comprises at least 35 percent of their national revenue. Dr Palikone said the system will be expanded to all parts of Laos by the end of 2013. He added that the one-stop service will earn even more revenue as more and more people are buying and selling land nowadays.
The project started in September last year and now covers four inner districts of Vientiane and some districts in other provinces.
Currently, the government is unable to collect revenue from land reclassification despite the legislation being in place for local authorities to do so. This failure may be due to a lack of understanding by the local authorities on how to enforce the legislation.
Prior to the establishment of the NMLA, the Ministry of Finance was responsible for collecting land taxes and other fees, with the amount of revenue collected in 2006-07 reaching only 48.6 billion kip.
In 1995-96, revenue from land taxes and other fees was just 3.14 billion kip, increasing to 3.5 billion kip in 1996-97.
vientiane times
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