Sanit attributed the lower-than-expected result to the current economic doldrums. Last month, revenue collection was lower than the estimated target of Bt79.587 billion, because of negative economic factors. In particular, collection of value-added tax (VAT) was below the original target by about Bt1 billion. The figure showed that domestic consumption had significantly dropped.

VAT collection from imports also dropped, because of the appreciation of the baht.

Finance Minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn, meanwhile, will call an urgent meeting with his advisers at 5pm today to follow up on a number of assignments, including fiscal transparency, state-enterprise development, the mega-projects and economic recovery.

In the first five months of this fiscal year, from October to February, the department collected Bt356.09 billion worth of revenues, higher than the target by 0.1 per cent, or Bt498 million, and 6.3 per cent higher than the same period last year.

The high revenue collection in the first five months of the fiscal year was attributed to high corporate income tax revenues, higher than the original forecast by 5.2 per cent, or Bt3.728 billion, and 11.4 per cent higher than the same period last year. Income from petroleum was also higher than the original forecast by Bt2.534 billion, or 42 per cent, and 23.9 per cent higher than the same period last year.

 VAT collection was lower than the original target by Bt5.689 billion, or 3.1 per cent, largely because of lower-than-expected import VAT collection. However, the figure is 6.6 per cent higher than the same period last year.

Meanwhile, about 80 per cent of people submitted tax documents over the Internet, up from 70 per cent of the base of about 8 million individual taxpayers. Sanit said income tax payments were Bt2 billion higher than last year.