8 January 2010: Local Burmese military authorities have collected Kyat 60,000 as annual tax from a small rice mill owner in Kyaukdaw Township, Arakan (Rakhaine) state in Burma.

“I am a member of the Kyautaw town rice mill committee and I spent Kyat 12,000 for buying the mill in 2009. After, which I paid Kyat 28,000 for permission to operate the mill to the Town Peace and Development Council (TPDC), Kyat 2000 for other expenses of TPDC, Kyat 4000 to the State Labour Law, and Kyat 16,000 to the Township Taxation Department. I had never heard about the State Labour Law fees,” said a mill owner in Kyautaw.

There are 200 rice mills in Kyautaw Township. Although the local authorities collect Kyat 12 lakhs in taxes from all the mills annually, they never submit all the collected funds to the central government, said a rice trader.

“I use the mill to process my crops every year. The annual tax for such a small mill is too high. We are aware that the authorities never pay all the money collected to the central government,” he added.

However, he did not say how much money is collected or deposited to the central government annually.  Taxation on mills is set to be increased in 2010 and if local authorities cannot collect and pay the quota of taxes to the concerned departments, the central government will cancel the permission of mill owners.

Similarly, military personnel are collecting excessive taxes in other parts of Arakan state in Burma.