Laos rolls out urgent measures to deal with COVID-19
The Lao Government on April 2 issued a series of urgent measures to ease difficulties in production and business, as well as ensure social welfare amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
People wear face masks to prevent coronavirus in Vientiane (Source: xinhua/VNA)
Vientiane (VNA) – The Lao Government on April 2 issued a series of urgentmeasures to ease difficulties in production and business, as well as ensure socialwelfare amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Decision No.31/PM said that the government allows thepostponement of the payment of annual road tax to June 30, and the extension of the deadline for submitting financial reports and business performance in 2019 ofenterprises from March 31 to April 30.
The Government exempts income tax for labourerswhose income is below 5 million LAK (556 USD) from April to June, and corporate income tax payment for small enterprises with revenues from 50-400million LAK from April to June.
It allows the Bank of Laos (BoL) to reduce its basicinterest and ratio of minimum saving of private bank based on situation of eachperiod, and to instruct private banks to implement policies on loans to copewith COVID19 impact such as deferring principal payment and interest, adjustinginterest, providing new loans to businesses, debt restructure, and debtreclassification.
The decision also requires decreases in fuel prices based onthe world ones, study on the possibility to reduce and defer payment forelectricity and water supply bills for individual and businesses, study onthe adjustment of insurance-related provisions for labourers who are laid off due to the pandemic, and the postponement of social insurance payment foraffected businesses.
The Lao Government also decides to study and revise the GDPand important macro-economic objectives for 2020, speed up the collection oftaxes in strongly-performing sectors, and intensify management over inflationand budget spending./.
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People wear face masks to prevent coronavirus in Vientiane (Source: xinhua/VNA) 
