The Excise Department is considering updating the suggested or recommended retail price for products subject to excise tax to ensure they are up to date.
According to Kulaya Tantitemit, director-general of the department, the plan is to conduct a survey of the "mode value of the retail price" (mode price) to assess how the costs and expenses of these products, such as cars, motorcycles and electric vehicles, both domestic and imported, have changed over time.
The mode price means the retail price found most often in normal markets for goods that are of the same category, type, quality and quantity in the department's survey, excluding value-added tax.
Discussions of adjustments to suggested retail prices, which serve as the basis for calculating excise tax, will take into account economic conditions, said Ms Kulaya.
If the economy is still sluggish, the adjustment may not be implemented, as an increase in the retail price would lead to a higher tax burden that would impact the public, she said.
Ms Kulaya said the suggested retail price serves as the base for calculating excise tax on several products.
The actual market price for relevant product types is also known as the "the mode".
She said the mode price is commonly derived from the selling price in markets reported by operators to the Excise Department and from department surveys.
The department changed the tax basis from using the ex-factory price for domestically produced goods and the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price for imported goods.
With the implementation of the Excise Tax Act in 2017, the basis for calculating the tax changed to the suggested retail price.
The change was made to address issues with the previous method, as cost surveys were more difficult to conduct compared with surveying retail prices in markets.
The suggested retail price reflects the production cost of operators, management fees and standard profit margins, culminating in a final consumer price in the market.
In cases where the suggested retail price is not realistic, does not follow market mechanisms or cannot be determined, the law grants the director-general of the department the authority to announce the suggested retail price.