Energy businesses, financial institutions and tourism will remain the main revenue generators for the Revenue Department, capable of contributing significantly to tax revenues this year, says the department's chief.
Kulaya Tantitemit, director-general of the department, said these three sectors are performing well and can pay high taxes to the department during the first nine months of fiscal 2024 (October 2023 to June 2024).
In contrast, the real estate sector has slumped this year, as reflected by lower tax payments.
However, the department hopes the sector can revive in the second half of this year following government stimulus measures, she said.
In April, the government approved real estate stimulus measures, including reducing mortgage and transfer fees. The transfer fee was reduced from 2% to 0.01%, and the mortgage fee from 1% to 0.01%.
Additionally, a corporate income tax exemption was provided for developers constructing homes priced up to 1.5 million baht for three years.
These measures, along with preferential interest rates on housing loans from the Government Housing Bank, have already injected 65 billion baht into the economy.
Regarding the tax base expansion, Ms Kulaya said the Revenue Department has sent letters to 100,000 individuals with income who are not yet in the tax system, urging them to enter the proper tax system. About 50,000 of them have complied, and the department will continue to follow up with the rest, she said.
Moreover, according to Ms Kulaya, the amendment of tax laws to collect value-added tax (VAT) on goods valued under 1,500 baht, which were previously exempt from both import duty and VAT, came into effect on July 5. The Revenue Department expects to collect about 1.5 billion baht from this measure.
For fiscal 2024, ending in late September, the department expects to meet its revenue collection target of 2.26 trillion baht.
In the first eight months of this fiscal year (October to May), the government collected net revenue of 1.68 trillion baht, 26.2 billion baht or 1.5% below the target.
The main revenue sources for the government remain the three tax departments. During the first eight months of this fiscal year, the Revenue Department collected 1.32 trillion baht, 7.67 billion baht or 0.6% above the target.
The Excise Department took 349 billion baht, 53.4 billion baht or 13.3% below the target. The Customs Department collected 79 billion baht, 2.73 billion baht above the target, or 3.6% higher than the goal.
