No departure tax being implemented: Revenue Department. THE REVENUE Department today (May 7) denied it is going to start collecting 1,000 baht air departure tax from Thais and foreign residents with the current online public hearings on this issue only being held to comply with a key law, Matichon newspaper said.– Thai Newsroom

No departure tax being implemented: Revenue Department

May 7, 2023  TNR Staff

THE REVENUE Department today (May 7) denied it is going to start collecting 1,000 baht air departure tax from Thais and foreign residents with the current online public hearings on this issue only being held to comply with a key law, Matichon newspaper said.

Mr. Winit Visetsuvarnabhumi, the department's deputy director-general, said public hearings on a departure tax of 1,000 baht for air travel and 500 baht by land and sea taking place during May 3-17, 2023 had to be held to evaluate the effectiveness of an emergency decree on the departure levy, based on a law passed in 1983.

This is necessary to comply with the 2017 Constitution and the Act on Legislative Drafting and Evaluation of Law B.E.2562 (2019) as well as a Cabinet resolution passed on January 19, 2021.

Although aforementioned law has not been enforced since July 1, 1991 (in keeping with the Ministerial Regulation on Outbound Travel Tax Exemption), the Act on Legislative Drafting and Evaluation of Law B.E.2562 (2019) requires that the Revenue Department assess the effectiveness of the law by listening to the opinions of those who are eligible to submit their views under Section 35 of this law, Winit said.

The department also has to hold public hearings on the effectiveness of two more laws, namely the Petroleum Income Tax Act and the Inheritance Tax Act, by next year.

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Top: An airplane flying away from Phuket after taking off from the island's airport. Photo:  Phuket@photographer.net (CC BY 2.0)