Sanit may take over at Revenue
Sanit Rangnoi, director-general of the Excise Department, is a candidate for new chief of the Revenue Department, pending a reshuffle of senior officials, and this may also delay amendment of the telecom tax, which was expected to be concluded in January.
Sanit, director-general of the Excise Department, is expected to replace Sirote Swasdipanich, who has been indicted by the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), according to an informed source. Sanit was at the Revenue Depart-ment before his current post. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula will hold a meeting to consider the case today. The NCCC has accused Sirote and four other senior tax officials of failing to collect tax on a share transaction among members of the Shinawatra family while Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister. Sirote is likely to be fired. Wisudhi Srisuphan, director-general of the Treasury Department, is expected to replace Sanit. Sanit, who was only recently ap-pointed chief of the Excise Depart-ment, has not yet resolved the telecom-tax issue. He earlier said he wanted to maintain excise on telecom services, although the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) wants it cancelled or cut to zero per cent. It is now 2 per cent of the service charge on fixed lines and 10 per cent of the charge on mobile phones. The tax was introduced by Thaksin's government as beneficial to the telecom industry, in which he had a vested interest, at the expense of two state telecom enterprises, TOT Plc and CAT Telecom. Deputy Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said the issue would be settled in January and all operators would be treated equally. The ICT ministry has tried to get the telecom tax onto the Cabinet agenda in the last few weeks, but the Finance Ministry has opposed it.
Wichit Chaitrong The Nation
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