The Finance Ministry is set to maintain its tax revenue target for the 2016 fiscal year at the same level as 2015 with the expectation that economic growth will come in at 5-6%.
Despite missing its target in fiscal 2014 by about 202 billion baht and uncertainty over whether fiscal 2015 revenue will come in as planned, the ministry plans to leave its 2016 target unchanged.
The ministry aims to collect 1.92 trillion baht from the Revenue Department in fiscal 2016, slightly lower than the 1.96 trillion targeted for fiscal 2015.
The target for the Excise Department has been set at about 500 billion baht, up 19% from fiscal 2015, while the target for the Customs Department is unchanged at around 112 billion baht.
Prasong Poontaneat, the Revenue Department's director-general, said the department is likely to collect higher revenue following the termination of juristic income tax, the new tax imposed on tutoring schools and stricter measures to prevent tax avoidance.
The department admitted that its 2015 target is high after 2014 revenue missed the target by around 160 billion baht.
For the first three months of fiscal 2015, the Revenue Department missed its target by 9.9 billion baht. The key reason was the drop in value of imported oil due mainly to plummeting crude prices. Revenue from value-added-tax on imported oil dropped by 3-4 billion baht per month.
Excise Department director-general Somchai Poolsavasdi said the department's target for fiscal 2016 was high and it must boost its efficiency in tax collection.
The department needs to add five more taxable items including luxury items and products causing impact to health and the environment, he said.
Mr Somchai said it would largely depend on the government's policy whether to increase excise tax imposed on diesel, which is now at 3.25 baht a litre.
For the first three months of fiscal 2015, tax collected by the Excise Department stood at 102 billion baht, down from an earlier target by 3.8 billion baht or 3.6%.
The main reason was that excise tax collected from cars missed the target by 6 billion baht, while that collected from liquor and beer missed the target by 2 billion baht.
The Finance Ministry will take another year to complete tax reforms that widen the collection base and close loopholes.