Zero boat tax tomorrow? No, say officials

PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Provincial Excise Office Chief Narong Sri Chakorn today dispelled rumors that the excise tax on imported yachts would drop to zero tomorrow. “The process is still awaiting Cabinet approval,” K. Narong said. “So far, there have been no decisions made and no regulations have been changed.” An officer at the Ministry of Finance, who asked not to be named, today confirmed that Cabinet has not yet even seen the proposal. Another Ministry of Finance officer, who also asked not to be named, said that scrapping the taxes – which currently total 47% of the boat’s value for commercial boats and 37% for recreational boats for personal use only – is being delayed because of fears about the effect it will have on the local boat-building industry. “It benefits only some people who want to use Thai waters for recreation, but our boat-building industry will be ruined because the difference in taxes between locally-built boats and imported ones will be lessened, and then the demand for … imported boats will increase until the local builders cannot compete with them.” Echoing a widely-held belief among officials that scrapping the tax is a bad idea, he added, “There are some people who think that yachts are expensive luxuries, and that it’s easy for [yacht owners] to pay tax [on them], just as they do for other vehicles.”