Lottery system would solve govt’s tax woes
The Revenue Department has taken the initiative in a bid to pull more entrepreneurs and small businesses into the formal tax system and maintain proper accounts. But lost revenue is estimated at Bt10 billion, and the incentive of avoiding back taxes if th
A cheaper solution that wouldn’t break the bank is the “tax-invoice lucky draw”, which was in effect from May 2003 to September 2004. Some 700,000 to 800,000 tax invoices per month were reportedly submitted under this scheme!
Yet for some reason it was not continued – perhaps due to high operating costs or fraudulent receipts. But to improve upon it, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
We only need to look at Taiwan’s tax-receipt lottery (Uniform Invoice), ingeniously concocted by that country’s first finance minister to raise much-needed tax revenues. Merchants and cash-oriented businesses are pushed into the formal system by consumers demanding receipts that are effectively free lottery tickets.
All the receipts are standardised to reduce fraud. Each receipt, whether for a Bt40 glass of bubble tea or a Bt10,000 flat-screen TV, is equivalent to one lucky-draw ticket.
I just hope Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong can persuade this military government to overlook the fact that the idea was tested during the Thaksin government and invented by an adversary of the People’s Republic of China, with whom we are getting ever-more cosy.
Sukit Bejrsuwana
