Thailand’s Q1 2024 government revenue exceeds target by 0.3%

The Fiscal Policy Office announced that government revenue collection for the initial quarter of fiscal 2024 surpassed its target by 0.3%, equating to 1.62 billion baht (US$45 million), according to the director-general, Pornchai Thiraveja.

Pornchai, who also serves as a spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, disclosed that the government’s net revenue collection for the initial three-month period of fiscal 2024, spanning October to December 2023, stood at 623 billion baht (US$17.37 billion). While this figure was relatively close to the target, it was 2.6% less than the same period in the previous fiscal year, reported Bangkok Post.

This decrease in revenue collection was attributed to the special revenue included in the previous year’s revenue base. Once the special revenue of 36.2 billion baht (US$1 billion) from the preceding year’s base is excluded, the revenue collection increased by 3.3% compared to the same period in the previous year.

The Revenue Department, as the nation’s primary tax collection agency, gathered 457 billion baht (US$12.75 billion). This figure exceeded the target by 2.5% and was primarily driven by value-added tax and the deferred remittance of income from some state agencies from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the Customs Department collected 30.2 billion baht (US$842 million), outperforming the target by 3.4% as import values exceeded forecasts. However, the Excise Department only managed to collect 124 billion baht (US$3.46 billion), falling short of its target by 13.1% due to a temporary tax cut on diesel and benzene fuel.

The government disbursed 963 billion baht (US$26.87 billion) during the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and borrowed an additional 20 billion baht (US$558 million) to cover its fiscal deficit. The treasury balance at the end of December stood at 209 billion baht (US$5.83 billion).

Looking back at fiscal 2023, which concluded on September 30, 2023, the government’s net revenue came to 2.66 trillion baht (US$74.2 billion). With the disbursements of fiscal 2024 and 2023 totalling 3.26 trillion baht (US$90.9 billion), the budget deficit amounted to 596 billion baht (US$16.6 billion).

When the deficit outside of the budget framework of 112 billion baht (US$3 billion) is integrated, the budget deficit swells to 708 billion baht (US$19.7 billion). To address this, the government aims to borrow 624 billion baht (US$17.4 billion), thus reducing the budget deficit to 84 billion baht (US$2.34 billion). The treasury balance at the end of September 2023 was 539 billion baht (US$15 billion).