Tax privileges prove a drag on revenue

The state’s net revenue collection exceeded the target by 3.4% for the 10 months through July as the Revenue Department’s tax revenue shortfall narrowed.

The government amassed 2.03 trillion baht from October to July, exceeding the target by 67.3 billion and rising 6.3% from a year earlier, said Finance Ministry spokeswoman Kulaya Tantitemit.

The higher-than-targeted revenue collection was due to income remittance by state enterprises and revenue collection of non-tax-collecting agencies as they outpaced targets by 20.8% and 17.5%, respectively, she said.

State enterprises remitted revenue worth 146 billion baht, a 2.5% rise year-on-year.

The top five i ncome contributors were the Government Lottery Office, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, PTT Plc, Government Savings Bank, and the Provincial Electricity Authority.

“In the 2018 fiscal year, the Finance Ministry is confident the government’s net revenue collection target will be reachable,” Ms Kulaya said.

The fiscal 2018 revenue collection target is 2.45 trillion baht, while the annual budget is 2.9 trillion, leaving a deficit of 450 billion (excluding the 150-billion supplementary budget).

Taxes collected by the three tax-collecting agencies, however, fell short of targets.

The Revenue Department garnered 1.49 trillion baht for the first 10 months of fiscal 2018, missing its target by 3.37 billion or 0.2%, but rising 6.4% over the same period a year ago.

Better-than-targeted petroleum, corporate income and withholding tax collection failed to cancel out the value-added tax shortfall and the Revenue Department’s revenue miss, Ms Kulaya said.

The petroleum tax tallied 19.2 billion baht, or 47.3% above the target because of retroactive tax payments and higher earnings from petroleum explorers, while corporate income tax outpaced the target by 2.41 billion.

The Excise Department collected 468 billion baht, 1.8% or 8.4 billion below the target but 3.1% above a year earlier.

Taxes on beer, fuel and alcohol were lower than their respective targets by 12.6 billion baht, 7.83 billion baht and 5.93 billion baht, or 17.5%. 4.2% and 11.2%.

But t he excise tax on cars and tobacco exceeded their targets by 8.66 billion baht and 4.99 billion, or 9.6% and 9.4%.

The Customs Department gathered 90.1 billion baht in tax revenue for the 10 months to July, 2.47 billion or 2.7% below its target but 3.8% higher than a year earlier.

Increasing imports of products that receive tax privileges were blamed for the department’s failure t o achieve its target.