Thursday, June 23, 2011

New Tax Law to Increase Burden on Private Sector

By KO HTWE Friday, June 17, 2011
Changes in Burma's tax laws will add to the burden on private-sector companies and their employees while sparing state-run and military-owned corporations, creating conditions that will increase the risk of future economic problems, according to experts and private entrepreneurs.
The changes, which come into effect next month, are part of an overhaul of tax policy designed to put it in line with Burma's 2008 Constitution, which abolished the Profit Tax Law that previously applied to private-sector companies.
Under the new rules, private companies and their employees who earn more than 30,001 kyat (US $38) annually will now have to pay the same income taxes as public companies. In practice, however, few state- or military-owned companies actually pay these taxes.

Seafood Processing Plants Shut Down, as Low Dollar Takes its Toll

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
RANGOON—Around 20 marine-product processing plants in Burma have temporarily suspended their operations, as the US dollar's decline against the kyat begins to eat into the value of overseas earnings, according to industry sources.
Since early June, the dollar has fallen below 800 kyat for the first time in many years, reaching just 785 kyat on the foreign exchange market at one point on Wednesday. The dollar's drop has hurt exporters, with many companies saying that they are barely breaking even, or in many cases actually losing money.
The appreciation of the Burmese currency against the dollar has been especially hard on the marine export business, according to Win Kyaing, the secretary of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF), an umbrella body of private-sector fishery associations in Burma.