The Excise Department is preparing to levy tax on Salty Food’ starting with the snack group in 2025

The Excise Department plans to start collecting “salty tax” in 2025, targeting ready-made products with high sodium content, especially snacks, which are not essential for life. The progressive tax rate will be used to encourage people to consume less sodium after finding that Thais consume more than twice the international standard.

Ms. Kulaya Tantitemit, Director-General of the Excise Department, revealed that in the fiscal year 2024, the Excise Department’s revenue collection was 532.6 billion baht, and in 2025, it is set to increase by 16% to 609 billion baht which is a challenging goal.

The Excise Department continues its ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) policy to sustain and support economic growth by focusing on modernizing, transparent, verifiable, and human resources development in line with future changes.

E and S (Environment and Social) will focus on expanding the tax base to promote environmentally and socially friendly products. Governance will focus on streamlining the Excise Department’s revenue collection process in terms of administration, taxation, suppression, and improvement of laws and regulations. As well as the integration of cooperation and communication with the private sector, the public sector, and other sectors to build mutual understanding and acceptance.

The Excise Department is preparing to collect salty tax to focus on the health of Thai people.

Ms. Kulaya said that in terms of tax policy, excise tax will be used as a sustainable tool. Salty tax or sodium tax is being studied. The first group of ready-to-eat products and snacks to start with a progressive tax, as well as a sweet tax, is expected to be implemented in 2025.

The Salty Tax will be a tax aimed mainly at public health. Currently, Thais consume more than twice the international standard. Therefore, to encourage Thais to consume less sodium, the Excise Department has prepared to pay a higher sodium tax or salty tax.

The use of taxes as a means of sustainability

The Excise Department aims to use tax as a key tool for sustainability by taking into account income balancing and promoting a sustainable economy and improving the country’s competitiveness.

The Automobile Tax will be restructured to support the transition from Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to Future Mobility such as EVs, PHEVs, HEVs, and Hydrogen.
Battery Tax will be restructured to support energy transitions that require efficient use of batteries, based on Energy Density or Charge-to-Weight and Lifecycle values.
The Carbon Tax will increase the “carbon price mechanism” in the structure of excise tax on oil and oil products by calculating greenhouse gas emissions against carbon prices to raise awareness and stimulate greenhouse gas emissions in both the public and industrial sectors. At the same time, the project is currently under consideration by the Cabinet before it becomes officially effective in the future.

Revision of regulations by promoting and supporting the community liquor industry to build up local wisdom into a competitive and standardized small and medium-sized industry.

In addition, in terms of policies to increase tax administration efficiency, Dr. Kulaya Tantitemit, the director general of the Excise Department, said that various issues are underway.

Improving the efficiency of value-based mechanisms. The current tax base for value-based rates is “recommended retail prices.” The criteria for retail price reporting are strict, the criteria for exploration and storage for popularity, the improvement of cost and expense databases, the definition of retail price structure, and the use of the information technology system to support operations as well as to determine the price of the central bank to calculate the penalty and additional money.
The promotion of public participation that can scan QR codes for tax payment using e-stamps for liquor products, which is an extension of the use of e-stamps for cigarette products that people can check tax payment for cigarette products by collecting information such as brand, and product details, manufacturer or importer, tax payment date, delivery location, and prices, etc. The buyer can check if they match the product, and if they find that the product and the information do not match, the buyer can call the Excise Hotline 1713 for the Excise Department to investigate further.
Developing people to keep up with changes in technology and law due to the rapid economic and social changes in the current economic and social situations will create a digital culture, such as developing human resources to multi-skilled digital and e-knowledge sharing. In this regard, learners will be able to learn more about the subject matter of interest and develop their skills to be ready for change.
Increased productivity through four digitalization processes: D-Service, D-Office, D-Culture, and D-Standard – for example, registration, tax filing, payment and tax benefits, and Big Data and Data Analytics. To forecast revenue and establish tax policies, as well as to enhance the efficiency of the database system to make policy decisions.

The Excise Director-General emphasized that the Excise Department is prepared to integrate policies, laws, personnel development, and information technology systems in the same direction in order to implement the government’s policies, focusing on achieving sustainability and balance of income and economic growth, as well as enhancing Thailand’s competitiveness.