The Office of the Auditor-General of Thailand (OAG) will force the Revenue Department to strictly scrutinise politicians' tax payments by assessing the value of their assets, says State Audit Commission (SAC) chairman Chaisit Trachoetham.
"This will be the first time that the OAG has used its legal power to force government officials to strictly collect taxes. We hope that people will no longer see us as just an empty suit," he said.
He said the SAC would submit letters to the finance minister and Revenue Department secretary-general to point out that strict law enforcement is the best solution to battle tax evasion by corrupt politicians.
"The point is that the Revenue Department has to have the courage to seriously scrutinise the tax payments of politicians. Section 49 of the Revenue Code requires the department to also assess tax based on their assets, not only on their personal income," said Mr Chaisit.
Instead of focusing only on politicians' income declaration, tax assessment by scrutinising any change in asset values is a more efficient approach to preventing corruption, he said.
The Revenue Department is compelled by the code to do so, otherwise it can be considered as violating Section 159 by ignoring its duty, said Mr Chaisit.
In the past, Revenue Department officials avoided scrutiny of politicians' assets in case it had a negative effect on them.
While Thailand's budget deficit has continued for more than a decade, the government needs to borrow 250 billion baht in the 2015 fiscal year to offset the high deficit, so tax revenue is important for government revenue.
Mr Chaisit said the law regarding tax collection based on assets was designated for use with the types of people, especially politicians, who are in positions that can exercise abuse of power to avoid tax payments.
"For instance, their revenue from being politicians may be only 2 million baht a year, but they might actually get 100 million baht from graft and they can hide it by spending 98 million baht in buying valuable assets," said Mr Chaisit.
"So if we look at their assets as well, those who are involved in corrupt activities will at least be aware of a high chance of getting caught."