BANGKOK – The Customs Department has ordered stringent reporting of imported goods after identifying a 10 billion baht drop in tax collection over the first 6 months of this year.
Director-General of the Customs Department Kulit Sombatsiri, taking part in an event to mark the founding of the Customs Department 143 years ago, revealed that customs duties collection over the past 6 months brought in 80 billion baht in revenue. The figure is 10 billion baht under target. Three billion baht of the loss was attributed to the second phase of tax structure adjustment, 4 billion to the use of free trade privileges by some countries and another 3 billion to privileges offered to ASEAN auto-makers.
However, the department has decided to be more stringent in its collection of duties from other imports to make up for the shortfall. Its offices are to focus on 3 issues, underpriced goods, misreported goods and misrepresentation of origin. Particular emphasis will be on 5 Customs Checkpoints which together make up 92 percent of all revenue.
