Industry supports move on tax cheats

The department is working out reference prices for all foreign vehicles. This new rule will require all importers that have under-declared import prices to avoid paying full taxes to pay up based on the reference prices.
This follows a complaint to the department by car importers that some in their industry provide false information on imported cars or auto parts to pay low import duties.
A study recently showed that the grey market had cost the government more than Bt50 billion in lost excise taxes.
Suparat Sirisuwannangkura, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries’ Automotive Industry Club, said the department’s move would create fairness in the industry. If the government had done nothing, the country would have lost tax revenue of more than Bt10 billion. In what period???
If no action had been taken, the auto business in Thailand would |have been severely affected, as carmakers that assemble vehicles locally would face competition from these imports.
The median prices are unlikely to affect authorised importers as their import prices refer to cars sold overseas and at the factory gate, and these can be verified, he added.
Vichien Emprasertsuk, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Thailand, said the company had begun to focus more on luxury-car imports. Recently it launched the 2,500cc Lexus GS family. The prices follow the rules under the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement.
Krisda Utamot, director of corporate communications of BMW Group (Thailand), said the company could accept reference prices set at a high level, but they should be by model, not by brand.
He does not think the reference prices will affect BMW.
According to the Department of Special Investigation, in January alone, 166 vehicles were imported on false documents. People posing as students showed documents confirming that they had owned the vehicles for 18 months overseas and were bringing them back home, to be eligible for a 50-per-cent tax rate.
In the same month, about 300 Mercedes-Benz vehicles were imported by unauthorised dealers and individuals for sale at below-market prices.
Some companies reportedly imported parts and then assembled them into cars locally. Parts are subject to lower import duties than whole vehicles.
The Customs Department was spurred to action after the fall of SEC Group, which sparked competition among smaller grey importers for its market share, estimated at more than 60 per cent.