BANGKOK – The Excise Department is set to propose new excise duties on tobacco and alcoholic beverages to the Cabinet next week before the Excise Tariff Act, B.E. 2560 is enforced on September 16th.
Excise Department Director-General Somchai Poonsawat has announced that manufacturers of tobacco and alcohol products will be taxed on the product prices and the alcohol content when the new legislation takes effect.
In the Meantime, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha believes vendors will try to hoard the products until the enforcement day. Those who do, he warned, will face legal consequences.
Gen Prayut added that the new excise tax collection, which will be carried out in a step-by-step approach, would not benefit any particular group of people.
In response to a report that many cigarette and alcoholic beverage companies would suffer a profit loss due to the new tax collection, Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said it is impossible to know if those companies will encounter a loss in profit because the new rates have yet to be determined.
