Thai Customs Department to expand tax collection measures

BANGKOK, April 24 (TNA) - Thailand's Customs Department, under the Ministry of Finance, says it plans to introduce more tax collection measures to boost its revenues. In an attempt to compensate for an anticipated drop in revenues this year, Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse told journalists on Friday that the planned measures include those considered helping boost his department's efficiency in tax collections, covering a more rigid move in seizing goods illegally sneaked into the country or imported with inaccurate amounts to cut business operators' tax payment. Somchai stated that his department has asked two popular Japanese automobile brands to pay customs tax amounting over 10 billion baht after they inaccurately specified the tax amount. Besides, Somchai revealed, his department will speed up tracing for dozens of cars under a probation which have been missing from official warehouses so that more tax will be collected and wrongdoers will be arrested. Somchai noted that his department is also amending five customs laws, aimed to increase customs revenues. According to the senior official, customs tax collection by his department during the first six months of the 2015 fiscal year, which started on October 1, 2014, stood at about 59 billion baht, lower than its projected amount by over 2.5 billion baht or 4 per cent, caused by a slowdown in national economic expansion. The Customs Department chief projected that his department's tax collection for the entire 2015 fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2015, should total 117.8 billion baht, 3.7 per cent lower than its earlier target. (TNA)