The Excise Department is exploring the idea of a carbon tax for the energy and transport sectors to reduce carbon emissions, says director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas.
He was speaking at the "Road to Net Zero" seminar held by Thansettakij newspaper on Tuesday, adding the world is prioritising environmental concerns and Thailand needs to adapt or will be forced to adapt.
The United States and the European Union (EU) plan to impose a carbon tax on imported goods.
In October, the EU is scheduled to impose its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on seven goods imported to the bloc, comprising iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, electricity, hydrogen and other upstream goods such as nuts and screws made of steel.
In the future, it is likely more goods will be subject to a carbon tax, said Mr Ekniti.
The US is also considering adoption of the Clean Competition Act to regulate carbon pricing on products that generate higher greenhouse gas emissions, both domestically and through imports via CBAM.
He said the Excise Department is in the process of studying a carbon tax structure on the energy sector, particularly fuel, in order to reduce carbon emissions from fuel.
Mr Ekniti said the department is working on jointly drafting a carbon tax structure with the Commerce Ministry and the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization to ensure export products to the US and Europe can be tax-deductible.
Local business operators need to bring their production processes and operations in line with new global standards by using a standardised tool for measuring emissions or carbon footprints, he said.
In three years, exports to Europe have to comply with the European emission measurement standards.
Thailand currently emits around 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, with energy and transport accounting for 70% of these emissions.
For the transport sector, the department revised the new excise tax rate for passenger vehicles by changing the tax collection basis from carrying capacity to the amount of emissions.
For instance, for a passenger car with less than 10 seats and an engine capacity of 3,000 cubic centimetres or less, the excise tax rate is 25% if the CO2 emission rate is less than 100 grammes/kilometre, and 30% for CO2 emissions of less than 200g/km.
For imported electric vehicles (EVs), the excise tax rate is 8%, but is temporarily reduced to 2% based on government support measures for EVs.