Customs department lowers its revenue target
THE CUSTOMS Department has revised down the target of revenue it can collect in the 2017 fiscal year to just over Bt100 billion from the original target of Bt120 billion after revenue in the first eight months of the fiscal year fell short of the original target by Bt10 billion.
The department director-general Kulit Sombatsiri said that he already consulted on the matter with the Fiscal Policy Office. The failure to meet the target is due to effects from the second phase of the country’s tax restructure, which resulted in a revenue loss of Bt3 billion.
The use of special tax privileges under free trade agreements cost the department another Bt4 billion in revenue.
The department will try its best to plug loopholes during the last three months of the fiscal year, especially the one that allows companies to declare product prices lower than actual prices and to declare false quantities of imported products.
Another loophole involves false declarations on the origin of products in order to gain tax privileges.
The department has also set up an intelligence centre to monitor the declaration of imported items.
Kulit said he believed that the department would be able to meet the new target of a little bit over Bt100 billion.
