The Customs Department estimates that 1 billion baht in tax revenue will come in if importers pay the duties to remove 633 abandoned cars from tax-free zones.
The 633 cars are worth 600-700 million baht in total, said Kulit Sombatsiri, director-general of the Customs Department.
The duties and other taxes come to 328% of the price of each imported car with engine sizes greater than 3,000cc and 276% for those with engine sizes of 2,500-3,000cc.
Kulit: Two-year removal deadline
In total, 209 of the cars were imported by local dealers and the remaining 424 by independent dealers, also known as grey-market operators. In terms of the car types, 71 are supercars and 127 are Mercedes-Benz, with various other models accounting for the rest.
Following a Section 44 order, 326 out of the 633 cars must be removed from the tax-free zones as they have been idly parked for more than two years, said Mr Kulit. Under the order, issued by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the cars which have breached the two-year deadline must be removed within 90 days.
The discarded vehicles have become a burden for the Customs Department, which has been tasked with caring for and maintaining them.
Mr Kulit said if the relevant importers do not pay their tax bills within the deadline, the Customs Department will seize the vehicles and put them on sale to generate revenue for the government.
Normally, the Customs Department is able to set the selling prices for the vehicles based on the market prices, taking deprecation-related deductions, duties and taxes into account.
As many as 1,140 imported vehicles were previously left at bounded warehouses and tax-free zones. The abandoned cars could be attributed to a failure to find buyers or higher importation costs from the baht's weakness.
In 2015 when the baht fell against the greenback, 307 cars were abandoned at tax-free zones.
A few years ago, more than 400 luxury cars reportedly disappeared from bonded warehouses without the taxes being paid on them, although some of them were eventually retrieved.