Ministry expects shortfall in corporate tax collections
The Finance Ministry said yesterday it was concerned about the spectre of low corporate income-tax collections in August and planned to tap into the country's fiscal reserves if tax receipts for this fiscal year were less than the Bt1.36-trillion target.
Finance Permanent Secretary Suparat Kawatkul said the revenue shortfall could lead to a slight cash deficit.He said the Revenue Department's corporate income-tax collections next month would indicate how bad or good the Kingdom's fiscal position would be. August is the month that corporations have to pay taxes for their first-half operations. He said future tax collections could be lower on the heels of poor earnings reports among listed companies. "Notably, in the first half their operations were not badly affected by the political turmoil. We're worried about how politics and other factors may affect their income in the latter half," he said. Corporate tax payments for the second half are due next May. Suparut estimated that the budget for fiscal 2007 would be lower than the original target of Bt1.476 trillion. He said the ministry would discuss revising the budget downward. The Nation
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