State firms drive intake of revenue

The government’s revenue collection for the nine months through June surpassed the target by 3.5%, largely because of higher-than-expected remittance from state enterprises and revenue collection from other state agencies.

Between October 2017 and June 2018, the state collected 1.83 trillion baht, up 5.4% from a year earlier, said Finance Ministry spokeswoman Kulaya Tantitemit.

But the three main tax-collecting agencies failed to meet their targets for the October-to-June period. The Revenue Department collected 1.37 trillion baht, missing the target by 11.5 billion or 0.8%, albeit 5.1% higher year-on-year.

The lower tax revenue collection for the nine months resulted from a 20.2-billionbaht shortfall in targeted value-added tax (VAT). The impact was offset somewhat by a petroleum tax that came in 10.8 billion baht higher than expected because of retroactive tax payments and higher earnings from petroleum explorers.

The Excise Department gained 419 billion baht, 82.9 billion or 1.9% less than targeted for the nine months to June, driven by shortfalls in the beer, fuel and liquor taxes of 16.7%, 4.8% and 8.7%, respectively.

The Customs Department amassed 81.5 billion baht, 2.04 billion or 2.4% shy of the target, which it attributed to import tariff collection that was 2.2 billion lower than expected.

Vehicles and parts, electric appliances and peripherals, machinery, pharmaceutical products and plastics and plasticrelated products paid the highest imported tariffs for the nine months through June.

Remittances from state-owned enterprises between October last year and June surpassed the target by 25.1 billion baht or 23.9% to 130 billion. The top five income contributors were the Government Lottery Office, PTT Plc, the Government Savings Bank, the Expressway Authority of Thailand and Airports of Thailand Plc. Other agencies sent income of 147 billion baht, outpacing the target by 27.5 billion baht or 22.9%.