Cambodia postpones levying 1 pct profit tax on garment, footwear until 2015: PM

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen announced Wednesday the government would give an exemption on the profit tax for the kingdom’s garment and footwear factories until 2015 in exchange for the 5 U.S. dollar increase of wage by the manufacturers to the workers.
  “The manufacturers asked the government to delay taking the profit tax of one percent a month from them until 2015 so that they would give an additional 5 U.S. dollars per month to each of the garment and footwear workers for healthcare,” he said during the 16th Government-Private Sector Forum.
  “Now, I agree on that and the agreement will come to effect from January 2012,” he said.
  The government estimated the tax loss of 1.23 million U.S. dollars a month or 15 million U.S. dollars a year, he said.
  “It is for the benefit of the workers to get additional 5 U.S. dollars for healthcare,” he said.
  Garment industry represented more than 90 percent of Cambodia’s total exports. The sector has 262 garment factories employing 319,313 workers and 36 foot-wears factories with 56,643 workers, according to the reports of the Commerce Ministry.
  Currently, the minimum monthly wage for a worker is 61 U.S. dollars.