VAT criteria‘ mis understood’ by parties
Revenue chief says refund service bids were disqualified for not meeting requirements
R evenue
Department director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas said a misunderstanding of the criteria led to one applicant being disqualified for the bid for a trial run to provide downtown value-added tax (VAT) refund services for foreign tourists.
He said one applicant proposed five locations for VAT refund points, expecting the Revenue Department to pick three of the proposed points. The department does not have the authority to select any particular location for the service, Mr Ekniti said.
This caused the applicant to be disqualified, he said after a meeting with the Thai Retailers Association (TRA) and Thai Chamber of Commerce to provide clarity on the criteria.
The meeting came after disputes between the Revenue Department and the TRA after a group of retailers that applied to be service providers failed to get approval from the tax-collecting agency.
The TRA recently called on the government to think twice about granting Counter Service Co, a payment service provider wholly owned by CP All Plc, the sole concession for downtown VAT refund service, out of three applicants.
The retailer group argued that Siam Paragon, CentralWorld, Central Chidlom, The Emporium and Robinson Sukhumvit are located in areas with the highest tourist density, making them the most appropriate refund points.
The Revenue Department has allowed two companies that failed to win approval to file appeals within 15 days after the decision was announced. The department will take 30 days to deliberate the appeals before forwarding them to the Finance Ministry for a final say if the department does not agree with the reasons stated in the petition.
The Finance Ministry is allowed up to 90 days to consider appeals.
Mr Ekniti said the department would have approved the three applicants for the six-month trial run if their qualifications and proposals had met the requirements.
The state agency will consider whether the downtown VAT refund service will be run permanently after the six-month trial period — Oct 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019 — lapses.
“The department had not committed to allow any particular groups to offer the service,” Mr Ekniti said. “For fairness, we need to be open to all groups that applied. The department has also never said that the downtown VAT refund service will be provided permanently, as it depends on the outcome of the six-month test run period.”
In the meantime, Worawut Oonjai, president of the TRA, said he will discuss filing an appeal with VAT Refund Center Thailand, one of the two losing applicants.
The four shareholders of VAT Refund Center initially considered reapplying for the service separately, but the company’s registration process takes 15 days, which would render it incapable of meeting the appeal period, Mr Worawut said.
He said the group proposed five locations for the service to let the Revenue Department select three.
For fairness, we need to be open to all groups that applied. EKNITI NITITHANPRAPAS DIRECTOR-GENERAL, REVENUE DEPARTMENT