BANGKOK, Thailand – The Thai Ministry of Finance is preparing a significant tax reform aimed at increasing the government’s revenue share of GDP from 12-13% to 18%. The reform plan, expected to be submitted for review by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Phichai Chunhavajira within the 2025 fiscal year, will encompass taxes including income tax, excise tax, and customs duties.
According to Lavaron Sangsanit, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, achieving a 5% increase in revenue collection could result in an additional 800 billion baht per year. This would help reduce the budget deficit and potentially balance the national budget sooner.
Pornchai Teerawet, Director-General of the Fiscal Policy Office, reported that the revenue collection for the first half of fiscal 2025 (October 2024 – March 2025) reached 1.19 trillion baht, surpassing the target by 1.8 billion baht or 0.2%, and increasing by 2.3% compared to the previous year. A major contributor to the increase was the collection of value-added tax (VAT) from domestic consumption, though revenue from car taxes was lower than expected due to measures promoting electric vehicle use.
The total revenue collected by the Revenue Department, Excise Department, and Customs Department during the first half of fiscal 2025 amounted to 1.28 trillion baht, showing an increase of 38.26 billion baht compared to last year.
The Revenue Department collected 966.2 billion baht, exceeding last year’s collection by 36.21 billion baht, while the Excise Department collected 264.97 billion baht, and the Customs Department collected 57.37 billion baht, both of which were lower than the previous year’s projections.
