Smuggled cigarettes hurt Thai tax income
FOREIGN cigarettes smuggled into Thailand across the Malaysian border is reducing the Revenue Department’s tax income, the Thai-language daily Thai Rath reported today (May 16).
Data from excise officials in the southern Thai province of Songkhla shows that cigarette tax income in the first four months of this year has gone down 41 per cent to 7.2 million baht, compared with 12.2 million baht in 2017.
“This is a serious problem that the government must tackle with urgency,” said the Thai Tobacco Association.
“A pack of legal Thai cigarettes now costs 60 baht, compared with just 10 baht for an illegal pack of cigarettes smuggled through the southern Thai border with Malaysia,” it added.
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Top: A 100 boxes containing smuggled foreign cigarettes worth 50 million baht was recently seized from a house in Songkhla province but no suspects were arrested. Photo: Thai Rath
By Songpol Kaopatumtip
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