Myanmar looking to change tobacco tax rates

Myanmar’s parliament has passed a new tax law for the coming fiscal year that, according to a story in The Myanmar Times, includes ‘a dizzying array of tax brackets for locally made cigarettes’.

If it is approved by the president, the law will take effect on April 1, after the new National League for Democracy-led government has taken power.

The most marked changes that the new law would usher in concern taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. The 2016 Union Tax Law includes 16 different rates for alcohol, and six for cigarettes, compared with a single rate for each item under last year’s law.

Taxes on imported alcohol and cigarettes will remain the same as those of this year, at 60 percent for alcohol and 120 percent for cigarettes, while rates for their locally made counterparts will fall.

Local cigarettes are currently taxed at the same rate as imported ones, but from April 1, packs of 20 cigarettes with a market price of K400 will each attract a tax of K60. Taxes will rise gradually, depending on price, to K300 for packs costing more than K800 each.