State enterprises exceed 6-month revenue targets

Government collected B1.1 trillion to March

Government revenue outpaced its target by 3.7% during the six months to March, thanks to higher than expected contributions from state enterprises and other state agencies.

The government managed to garner 1.07 trillion baht from October to March, beating its goal by 38 billion, said Finance Ministry spokeswoman Kulaya Tantitemit.

If the government manages to collect more revenue than it projected for the 2018 fiscal year, the budget deficit will be lower than the expected 550 billion. The target revenue collection for fiscal 2018 is 2.45 trillion baht, while the annual budget is 2.9 trillion, leaving a deficit of 450 billion, swelling to 550 billion when the additional 100-billion borrowing plan for the supplementary budget is included.

Better than expected income contributions from state enterprises and non-tax-collecting state agencies contributed to the higher revenue for the first six months of the fiscal year, while the three taxcollecting agencies failed to achieve their targets, Ms Kulaya said.

State enterprises added 68.1 billion baht for the government’s coffers during the first half of the fiscal year, beating their target by 17.5%. Non-taxcollecting state agencies contributed 106 billion baht, 18.5% higher than the target, she said.

The top five income contributors were the Government Lottery Office at 19 billion baht, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand at 13.4 billion, Airports of Thailand at 8.6 billion, the Government Savings Bank at 6.52 billion and the Provincial Electricity Authority at 5.69 billion.

The Revenue Department, the country’s largest tax collector, amassed 769 billion baht during the six months to March, falling short of its target by 1.42 billion or 0.3%.

Value-added tax (VAT) was off target by 2.8% and personal income tax was 1.4% below the goal.

However, higher than expected corporate income tax collection almost offset the VAT and personal income tax shortfall. The higher corporate income tax was attributed to better than expected revenue from withholding, disposing profit and service taxes.

Petroleum income tax revenue was 283% higher than targeted, driven by improved earnings from oil exploration and retroactive tax payments.

The Excise Department missed its target by 2.92 billion baht or 1.1%, managing 268 billion over the first six months.

Oil and beer excise taxes fell short of their target by 7.1% and 11.2%, respectively, while auto and tobacco excise taxes surpassed the target by 9.4% and 8%, respectively.

The Customs Department collected 54.8 billion baht during October to March, missing its target by 3.1% or 1.74 billion.

Ms Kulaya said the Revenue Department paid back 145 billion baht in tax refunds.