BANGKOK, 10 March 2014 The Fiscal Policy Office has expressed fears that the government’s revenue from tax collection will fall short of its target due to the ongoing political conflict.
Mr. Somchai Sujjapongse, Director General of the Fiscal Policy Office, said the FPO would closely monitor the current political impact on the country’s economy, as he feared that Thailand’s economic growth this year wouldn’t reach the 4-5 percent increase earlier predicted by the Finance Ministry. This would mean state revenue from the taxes imposed by the government would be lower than its targeted figure.
He did however give an assurance that the FPO had already drawn up plans to cope with such an impact, while expressing hopes that the political situation would soon return to normal.
Despite the pessimism, the FPO in the first four months of fiscal 2014 (Oct 2013 – Jan 2014) collected as much as 655 billion baht from taxes, which was 1.5 billion baht more or 0.21 percent higher, than the anticipated figure.
