Phnom Penh: The Director-General of the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia, Mr Kun Nhim, answered a question from EAC News. The General Department of Customs provides car tax payment services on holidays as well, as the customs deadline is set to stop receiving car tax payment by June 30, 2022.

Speaking at a press conference on the progress of the implementation of the collection of duty-free vehicles and existing import duties in the country on May 4, 2022, Mr. Kun Nhim said that to avoid any problems after June 30, 2022, when the General Department of Customs informed that it will strictly implement this principle, "Citizens bring cars to pay taxes."

He said "With almost two months left, we estimate that the number of people who have Duty-free cars and are willing to bring their cars to pay taxes may not be very high. According to my initial estimate, based on the number of cars that the owners have imported to pay taxes, including our crackdown, we can get about 1,000 more cars in these two months."

He added that "In the campaign to introduce existing duty-exempt car owners in Cambodia, only about 8,000 cars can be achieved, with an estimated 10,000 cars. Because some of the cars that have not been taxed are very old and some of them are modified incorrect, which customs do not allow paying the tax duty because a used car or it is not safe to use because of the modifications. For duty-free cars there is around 10,000 cars."

He also stated that for left-hand drive vehicles, the owner can pay the registration tax, make the license plate and can use it legally, while the right-hand-drive car must bring his car and deposit on the tax and take the car to shift the steering wheel to the left hand-side, where the Ministry of Public Works and Transport provides this service.

According to Kun Nhim, the total number of right- and left-hand drive vehicles that the owners came to pay the tax and deposit as of April 30 was 6,922 units, which received about $ 60 million in taxes.

It should be noted that the government will take strong action after the deadline, which is from July 1, 2022, by increasing crackdowns, and when the vehicle is impounded, for left-hand drive vehicles to pay taxes and import duties, plus fines, and for the right-handed cars are impounded they will be destroyed or split into parts.