Illicit Trade in Southeast Asia – Thailand Banking Big on Digital Technologies

In the February issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, we launched a series of articles by Chander S Jeena, on the illicit tobacco trade in Southeast Asia and how it is being dealt with. This month we continue the series with an update on the situation in Thailand, although this time we are expanding our focus to include products other than tobacco.

Recent developments in Thailand have seen the Thai Excise Department implement a number of digital technologies and systems in line with government plans to upgrade public services as the country enters the ‘Industry 4.0’ era.

For instance, the department is working with the Krung Thai Bank (KTB) on three pilot projects using digital platforms to improve the security, accuracy, and transparency of tax collection and refund systems, including fuel-tax refunds, e-bank guarantees and licence renewals for liquor, tobacco, and playing cards. With these new platforms in place, licensees will be able to simply input their licence number into terminals at any of the 1,100 branches of KTB nationwide in order to immediately renew their licence – rather than having to traipse to the Excise Department to do this, as was the case in the past.