Politicians are suspected of forcing the Customs Department to approve about 10,000 falsified invoices for luxury cars imported from the UK, the Office of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission said.
"Judging by the department's internal information, this [tax evasion] scam involved politicians overseeing, and who had overseen the department," PACC secretary-general Dusadee Arayawuthi said yesterday.
He did not say how many politicians were involved.
The PACC earlier found the invoices of the imported cars were falsified to declare the prices of the vehicles at far below their real price, to avoid paying full import taxes on the vehicles.
Most of the imported cars declared with the department with faked invoices were Mercedes-Benz cars that were made in Germany but sent to the UK before being exported to Thailand, Pol Col Dusadee said.
For example, a CLS 350 CDI 2011 model was declared as being imported at US$25,600, or about 810,000 baht each, which was subject to an import tax of only 2.5 million baht, he said.
However, the British embassy in Bangkok said that particular model was sold for 55,000 or 2.7 million baht, which would have been subject to 8 million baht import tax if it had been correctly declared, said Pol Col Dusadee.
Customs Department officials of several ranks were involved in the tax avoidance scam, he said.
The transaction records of 108 customs officers implicated in the scam would also be checked, he said.