Excise man hits the jackpot

PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Excise Office (PPEO) has announced that it expects to collect at least 5 million baht in excise tax from “pleasure craft” in the current tax year (to September 30, 2003), along with at least 29 million baht in excise tax from golf courses. Narong Srivanitchakorn, Chief of the PPEO, said that his office had collected about 4 million baht in excise tax from pleasure craft in the 2001-2002 tax year, due to the reduction of the excise tax, which brought import taxes down from more than 200% to around 40%. With the tax lowered, more people came forward to file their taxes, he explained. About 500,000 baht has already been collected for the coming year. As for excise tax collected from golf courses, K. Narong said that his office collected 29 million baht last year, the highest amount collected in any province in Thailand, from the four golf courses on the island. The amount to be collected this year is still being negotiated between the PPEO and the Excise Department in Bangkok. “The Excise Department set a target of 33 million baht in tax to be collected from golf courses in Phuket this year, but I have already told them that – even though there is another golf course being built – considering the current economic situation and the small increase in the number of tourists coming to the golf courses, it would be difficult to collect that amount. I have asked that the target amount be maintained at 29 million baht,” he said.