BANGKOK, 4 April 2017: Thailand’s Excise Department says a new Excise Tax Act will come into effect this September.
It is likely to increase the cost of a bottle of beer by around 4% to 5% according to wholesale distributors.
The department general director, Somchai Poolsavasdi, said the recently-drafted Excise Tax Act is a combination of seven excise duty regulations (excise tax, excise tax tariff, liquor, tobacco, playing cards including allocations of excise tax and liquor) which were publicised in the Royal Gazette 20 March.
The newly-drafted Excise Tax Act will be enacted 180 days after the publication, which makes its effective 16 September this year.
The new law will allow officials to collect duty on alcohol and tobacco more effectively and in accordance with international standards.
The enactment will be followed by the promulgation of 80 related organic laws.
The new excise tax merges seven excise tax laws into one and it changes the tax collection from ex factory price to retail price before VAT, which the department claims will be fairer for tax payers.
“The ceiling rates are set for the next 20 years. But the applied rate will be much lower initially as we do not want to increase the tax burden all in one move.”
The tax ceiling on beer, wine and liquor will be 30% of the retail prices, or THB3,000 per litre of alcohol. The new tax ceiling on cigarettes is much higher, at 90% of the retail price.
The effective rates will be further defined in the secondary law, which is currently under consideration.
For the new Excise Tax Act full report can be found in the Royal Gazette (Thai) visit
http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2560/A/032/1.PDF.