Finance Minister Keat Chhon issued a letter on Tuesday warning mobile phone companies to pay up all the back taxes they owe to the government or risk having their bank accounts frozen.
The letter comes in the wake of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s statements at a business forum on Friday accusing mobile phone firms of owing millions of dollars in back taxes and demanding that they pay up or be shut down.
“I would like tax debt payers to know that it is necessary to cooperate with me and tax officials,” Keat Chhon wrote.
Keat Chhon announced that the mobile phone industry owed the government a total of $26.2 million in tax debt, the majority of which is owed by Cambodia Shinawatra [Camshin] Co Ltd, which operates the 011 prefix.
Money is also owed by Cambodia Samart, which operates 016, and MobiTel, which operates 012, he said.
Jiroj Finamwong, general manager for Camshin, said his company will be the first to resolve its debt problem. But he denied that his company owed as much back taxes as the government claims.
“I do not think [that it] is us. I believe all the operators owe,” Finamwong said.
Kith Meng of the Royal Group of companies that runs MobiTel declined comment, though David Spriggs, MobiTel general manager, said MobiTel always complies with government policy and reaches the government’s requirements.
Sim Eang, director of the Ministry of Finance’s tax department, said that “strong action” was not yet needed to resolve the debt problem.
“I understood that our country has tax law, and step-by-step, companies will [follow] the law,” Sim Eang said.
But he said tough measures could ensue if companies do not cooperate with tax officials.
“The final action will be to freeze accounts of the companies following the tax law,” Sim Eang said.
He said that the tax department will start to collect the debts from the mobile phone companies first, and will then begin to target other companies doing business in Cambodia that owe back taxes.
