The government's revenue collection for the first three months of fiscal 2024 exceeded its target by 0.3%, or 1.62 billion baht, says Fiscal Policy Office director-general Pornchai Thiraveja.
Mr Pornchai, who is also a spokesman for the Finance Ministry, said the government's net revenue collection in the first three months of fiscal 2024 (October to December 2023) was 623 billion baht.
The revenue collected was close to the target but was 2.6% lower than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
Revenue collection was lower than the previous year due to special revenue in the revenue base of the previous year.
Excluding special revenue of 36.2 billion baht from the base of the previous year, revenue collection was 3.3% higher than the same period of last year.
The Revenue Department, as the country's largest tax collection department, collected 457 billion baht, exceeding the target by 2.5%, driven by value-added tax and deferred remittance of the income of some state agencies from the previous year.
The Customs Department collected 30.2 billion baht, exceeding the target by 3.4% as the value of imports was higher than forecast.
The Excise Department collected 124 billion baht, lower than its target by 13.1%, as a result of the temporary tax cut on diesel and benzene fuel.
For the first three months of fiscal 2024, the government has disbursed 963 billion baht, and borrowed 20 billion baht to cover its fiscal deficit.
The treasury balance at the end of December was 209 billion baht.
For fiscal 2023, which ended on Sept 30, 2023, government net revenue tallied 2.66 trillion baht, with disbursement of fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023 totalling 3.26 trillion baht, resulting in a budget deficit of 596 billion baht.
When combined with a deficit outside the budget framework of 112 billion baht, the budget deficit increased to 708 billion baht.
The government seeks to borrow 624 billion baht to deal with the budget deficit, which has been reduced to 84 billion baht.
The treasury balance at the end of September 2023 was 539 billion baht.