Friday, April 18, 2014

Rice customs fees dropped

18 April 2014

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) will scrap customs fees for rice exporters from May 1 in an effort to reduce production costs and boost Cambodia’s competitiveness in the sector.

The ministry has agreed to eliminate charges relating to customs processing fees for exporters of rice in order to boost the rice export industry. The fee changes will become effective on May 1, in less than two weeks time. The government’s changes to the customs tariff scheme have been welcomed by rice industry officials and economists. The government’s move will help cut production and export costs by at least $15 per shipping container. With about 379,000 tons of Cambodian rice exported in 2013 via about 15,750 shipping containers, the MoEF’s decision could potentially save the industry more than $236,000 annually. All stakeholders in the rice sector, including exporters, millers and farmers stand to benefit from the fee cut. The government may lose a small amount of revenue from fees, but they will gain a lot of benefits.

The move is the latest in a suite of changes to the Kingdom’s customs and export process. In an effort to cut red tape and automate processes for Cambodian exporters, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) earlier this year relaxed requirements relating to certificate of origin. Just last week, the MoC also confirmed it was undergoing an internal shake-up to streamline the export process for all industries.

Source:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-customs-fees-dropped

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