The government has no plan to increase the value-added tax (VAT) at this time, Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong affirmed on Thursday.
The set VAT rate at 7% is suitable for the current economic situation, he said.
Mr Kittiratt, also deputy prime minister for economic matters, said the current VAT rate is the same level as that of Singapore and relatively lower than those of other member countries of the Asean.
He was confident that the government’s revenue from tax collection for the 2013 fiscal year (Oct 2012-Sept 2013) would be in line with the set target of 2.1 trillion baht.
Therefore it was not necessary for the government to raise any tax to increase its revenue, he added.
Asked about the persistent financial crisis in Cyprus and increasing tension between North Korea and South Korea, Mr Kittiratt said overseas crises had severely affected the Thai economy.
In order to minimise the impact of outside negative factors, the government was now relying more on internal economic mobilisers. The decision to invest in 2-trillion baht infrastructure development projects was part of its effort, he said.