BANGKOK, 8 August 2011 – The Ministry of Finance has agreed not to collect tax worth totally 11 billion THB from the son and daughter of ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for their capital gains from Shin Corp shares.
Deputy Director General and Acting Spokesperson of the Revenue Department Jitmanee Suwanpul revealed that the Finance Ministry had given a green light to the department’s proposal to exempt Mr Panthongtae and Ms Pinthongta Shinawatra from the payment of capital gains tax worth 5.67 billion THB each, or altogether about 11 billion THB, owed to the state.
The two were found by the Revenue Department in 2006, when they were executives of Ample Rich Investment Co, Ltd, to have procured Shin Corp shares from their father Thaksin through scripless trading in an attempt to evade tax. The shares were later sold to Singaporean firm Temasek Holdings.
Ms Jitmanee reasoned that the Central Tax Court’s ruling on 29 December 2010 clearly stipulated that the true owners of the shares were not Mr Panthongtae and Ms Pinthongta but were instead their parents, Mr Thaksin and Khunying Potjaman Na Pombejra. Therefore, the department has no authority to collect the 11 billion THB from the duo and has also returned them the frozen cash worth 22 million THB as well as properties and other assets of a combined value of 1 billion.
However, the Finance Ministry has not filed any appeals over the case as it agrees with the suggestion of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions that there would be no use in doing so. Instead, the Ministry needs to pursue Mr Thaksin and Khunying Potjaman for the unpaid tax before the case reaches its statute of limitations.
