ABOVE AND BEYOND

State firms contributed B129bn in income to government coffers in the nine months to June, beating the target by 26%.

State enterprises contributed 129 billion baht in income to government coffers in the nine months to June, exceeding the target by 26%, says the head of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo).

In June alone, state enterprises sent 7.59 billion baht to the government, surpassing the target of 5.04 billion, said Sepo director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas.

With the higher-than-targeted income contribution, Sepo is confident that state enterprises will be able to contribute more than the full fiscal-year target of 131 billion baht, Mr Ekniti said.

Chanvit Nakburee, deputy director of Sepo, said the better-than-expected income contribution of state enterprises could be due to their improving financial performance.

National oil and gas firm PTT Plc, the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), Government Savings Bank (GSB), the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the Government Lottery Office (GLO) were the biggest income contributors for the nine months to June.

The GLO gave 22 billion baht to the government in the October-to-June period, followed by Egat (21.7 billion), PTT (14.6 billion), GSB (13.1 billion) and the PEA (11.4 billion).

Sepo’s improved collection management to comply with the country’s revenue collection plan also contributed to the greater income contribution by state enterprises, Mr Chanvit said.

He earlier estimated that state enterprises would contribute 140 billion baht in the fiscal year ending Sept 30, exceeding the target set by the Finance Ministry by almost 10 billion.

The government has set a budget of 2.73 trillion baht for fiscal 2017, leaving a deficit of 390 billion.

The higher-than-targeted state revenue contribution helped offset a tax revenue shortfall.

The Revenue Department last month said it fell short of target by 80 billion baht for the first eight months to May, largely due to a steep decline in petroleum income tax.

The shortfall made it likelier that the country’s largest tax-collecting agency would miss this fiscal year’s target.

Petroleum income tax for the eight months to May was 30 billion baht lower than targeted. The full-year shortfall is estimated at 45 billion baht.

The Revenue Department’s tax revenue target has been set at 1.87 trillion baht for fiscal 2017.

For its part, the Customs Department missed its target by 10.6 billion baht or 13.4%, taking in 69.1 billion for the October-to-May period.