Excise Department helps stimulate grassroots economy

0
798
Director-General of Excise Department, Patchara Anuntasilpa.
Director-General of Excise Department, Patchara Anuntasilpa.

In response to the government’s policy to support income distribution in local communities, the Excise Department is to arrange activities to boost the income of participating communities across the country, and strengthen the domestic economy amid the global economic slowdown.

The Director-General of the Excise Department, Patchara Anuntasilpa, announced that the government’s “Chim, Shop, Chai (Taste, Shop, Spend)” stimulus campaign has helped promote the tourism sector as well as the economies of local communities. Patchara said his agency had instructed its provincial units to hold meetings or seminars with community members regularly, so that they can help promote local food, products and tourist destinations. He said this will create an additional channel for communities to generate more income.

Next week, senior officials of the Excise Department are to meet with local entrepreneurs in Phutthamonthon district, Nakhon Pathom province, to offer guidance and information about tax regulations. The meeting will help the entrepreneurs to operate their businesses and better manage their tax obligations properly.

The government’s moves to raise cash flow in local communities is one of the ways to support economic expansion from within, as the global economy faces a slowdown.

One of the government’s economic expansion measures is to support income distribution more broadly. For fiscal year 2019, the government’s revenue from tax collection exceeded the target by 1%, or about 585 billion baht. Excise tax collected on alcoholic beverages and motor vehicles increased slightly from last year. For fiscal year 2020, the government’s tax collection target is 10% higher, or about 642 billion baht.