The Revenue Department has apologised for the misleading information it gave earlier -- that personal income tax filers would get refunds "the next day" after filing if they use PromptPay -- when in fact this is only the case with those who tied PromptPay to their Krungthai Bank.
"We apologise," says Mr Prasong. (Bangkok Post file photo)
The department earlier promised taxpayers that a refund via PromptPay would be faster than the earlier method of sending cheques by mail. Encouraged by the information, many taxpayers filed their tax returns since the beginning of the year in the hopes of getting the money the next day.
But it turned out many of them got was an automatic SMS text message informing them the department had already transferred the refunds although no money had been wired to their accounts.
Disgruntled taxpayers have turned to the Pantip.com community website to vent their frustrations. Some of them wrote that after some calls, the department's officials told them the fast refund was only for those who used state-owned Krungthai Bank accounts as their PromptPay accounts.
Revenue Department director-general Prasong Poontaneat apologised to taxpayers on Tuesday, saying the refunds via PrompPay to all banks had been in place only on Tuesday while Krungthai Bank’s system had been ready since Jan 4.
“We apologise to taxpayers for the confusion caused by the wrong SMS and the answers given by our staff. I insist that the tax refunds via the PromptPay are fast and safe,” he said.
An executive from Siam Commercial Bank confirmed that according to the agreement between the Revenue Department and the Thai Bankers Association, the system would start from Jan 10.
As of Jan 5, the department has refunded over 90 million baht via PromptPay, all of it to Krungthai bank accounts.
For 2017, the department forecast personal income tax refunds of 23 billion baht to 3.2 million taxpayers, on par with last year.