Thai government mulls to tax earners of e-commerce

BANGKOK, March 6 (TNA) - The Revenue Department, under the Thai Ministry of Finance, is considering to impose the value-added tax (VAT) on e-commerce businesses in the country in case that they each earn a total revenue of more than 1.8 million baht annually. The department's director-general, Prasong Poontaneat, told journalists on Tuesday that his department has completed working out a new draft bill on imposing the VAT on Thai e-commerce businesses whose annual revenues exceed 1.8 million baht each. Prasong said his department will soon present the new draft bill to Thai Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong for consideration, prior to his submission to the Cabinet for further consideration and a decision. According to the senior Thai official, the new draft bill resolves a frequent problem that e-commerce businesses in the country has evaded paying the VAT when buying goods online by separating their cash bills to be each worth no more than 1,500 baht, the benchmark level that the bill is legally-exempt from the VAT while each of their separated parcels of goods is delivered to their offices. The senior official acknowledged that Thailand's e-commerce has grown to about 17 per cent presently, from about 10 per cent in previous years, and there are now about 300,000 e-commerce business operators in the country. (TNA)