A PTT gas station in the center of Bangkok. Domestic oil consumption fell in line with the economy during the pandemic.
A drop in local auto and oil sales has hurt the excise department’s revenue, general manager Lavaron Sangsnit said.
He said a shortage of semiconductor chips, a key component for vehicles, has impacted domestic auto sales and, consequently, consumption tax collection.
In line with the country’s weakening economy, domestic fuel consumption has also decreased. The oil consumption tax accounts for a third of the department’s consumption tax revenue.
Mr Lavaron said the ministry recently downgraded its fiscal 2021 revenue target to 549 billion baht due to the impact of the pandemic on the economy.
He believes the department can achieve the new goal as excise tax revenues exceeded expectations in the first half of the year.
Previously, the department had set the revenue target at 630 billion baht, assuming the economy will grow 4% this year.
On Wednesday, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) again lowered its economic growth forecast for this year to 0.7% as the third wave of Covid-19 has had a stronger impact on the country’s economy since the central bank’s earlier forecast.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Wednesday decided to lower the GDP growth forecast for 2021 from 1.8% in the previous month to 0.7%.
The MPC also cut its forecast for Thai economic growth in 2022 to 3.7%, from its previous forecast of 3.9%.
In the first nine months of fiscal year 2021, the excise agency levied excise taxes of 416 billion baht, missing the nine-month target by 11.5%, or 54.2 billion baht.
The Treasury Department’s revenue of 1.31 trillion baht for the first nine months of fiscal year 2021 fell 9%, or 130 billion baht, off its nine-month target. However, the value is 4.3% or 53.7 billion baht higher than in the same period last year.
The Treasury Department posted net income of 1.73 trillion baht for the first nine months of fiscal 2021, 10.1% or 195 billion baht below its nine-month target but still 2.9% or 49.5 billion baht higher than in the same period of the 2020 financial year.