BMA hopes to make Bt100m from tough advertising taxes

At a meeting on promoting effective income collection, the BMA committee yesterday set guidelines to collect taxes for the 2010 fiscal year starting from October 1, he said. In order to do this, the BMA would need to inform businesses posting advertisements in buildings or on public transport that they need to pay taxes, he added.

The committee agreed that the new regulations would require that advertisers apply for a tax reassessment every time the contents in their advertisements are changed, while signboards or posters in private buildings as well as those posted illegally on trees and electricity poles would be assessed for tax, he said.

For instance, Theerachon said, officials would remove posters put up without permission, call the phone numbers listed and demand that the advertisers pay the tax.

The panel has also tasked the BMA Finance Department's Income Division to study taxcollection guidelines to tackle private firms, including the state enterpriseturnedprivate companies, that put up signs in public spaces. The division will also study guidelines to tax state offices that rent out space to private businesses because they are currently not part of the building and landtax system, he said.

Since the Finance Ministry will have the city collect estate and inheritance tax in two or three years, BMA will also need to prepare its officials and the computer system, as well as study details closely, he said.

If all the abovementioned tax can be collected, BMA's income should increase by Bt100 million. He revealed that this fiscal year, the BMA collected Bt600 million in advertising tax, of which Bt49 million came from signs posted on public transport - figures that met the agency's target 100 per cent. He said the city also aimed to propose an amendment for ministerial regulation so it could be authorised to collect tax on advertisements posted on private cars.

Although the BMA has been collecting tax for advertisements posted on city buses, the subway, Skytrain and on public spaces and big private buildings, some major businesses - such as a Thai alcohol beverage manufacturer and a leading group producing consumer products - have never paid such taxes, he said.