But the latest figure for tax submissions shows that most Thais are good citizens: more than 4 million individual taxpayers have already submitted their payment documents, out of the total 7.5 million required to do so.

As of last week, more than 2.8 million tax documents had submitted online, while another 1.4 million were sent in the traditional way: on paper.

Officials expect the remainder to submit their tax documents before the March 31 deadline. Normally, a huge number of people pay up in the final weeks of this month. So, the 3 million laggards are not cause for worry.

Initially, revenue officials were concerned that a large portion of citizens would refuse to pay tax in protest against the tax-free sale of Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings.

The notorious Bt73-billion deal has snowballed into daily protests against the government. People feel unfairly treated. For instance, Revenue Department officials collect tax for every bowl of noodles that street vendors sell, but they failed to collect a single baht from the sale of the Shin Corp empire, thanks to a crafty legal team that used legal loopholes to avoid paying tax.

However, the high number of tax submissions suggests taxpayers may be sending another message. Perhaps, they are showing rich politicians how to behave.

Vendors are proud of every baht they have paid to the government because they realise tax payments are not something to avoid, but are part of a citizen's duty to the country.