PHNOM PENH: The General Department of Taxation (GDT) collected US$298.55 million as tax income in the first month of this year, inching down 0.68 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

“The tax income in January this year accounts for 7.17 percent of the yearly target,” said a report issued on Monday.

In January, it pointed out, that the GDT earned value-added tax (VAT) of US$8.67 million on e-commerce transactions from non-resident taxpayers of enterprises, suppliers of goods, and electronic services from abroad.

The government started implementing e-commerce VAT in April 2022 and taxed companies including Google, Facebook, YouTube, Alibaba, Microsoft, and TikTok.

The country has two institutions responsible for collecting taxes. One is the General Department of Taxation (GDT), which focuses on interior taxes such as income tax, salary tax, value-added tax, and property tax, and the other is the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE), which collects taxes on goods entering and leaving the country.

Last year, the GDT earned US$3.61 billion, a 4.5 percent increase from US$3.45 billion in 2022.