Thai Revenue officials crack major tax invoice forgery gang

[webfact]

Revenue officials crack major tax invoice forgery gang



BANGKOK: -- The Revenue department says it has cracked a major tax invoice forgery gang after almost a year long tracking.

The crackdown is the third time in a year which incurred damages of over 600 million to the country’s tax system.

Revenue Department director-general Prasong Poonthanes said the tracking of the fake e tax invoices focussed on about 50 companies in Samut Prakarn, Samut Sakhon and Bangkok which officials suspected of involving with the forgery.

He said cooperation with revenue officials overseas and customs officials revealed that these suspected firms did not export cargoes out of the country as they had declared to claim tax refunds.

They forged fake receipts and tax invoices among the group to claim value-added tax rebates, he said.

These fake invoices have incurred more than 600 million baht to the country, he said.

Penalty for such crime is subject to 3 months to seven years in prison and a fine of 2,000-200,000 baht.

To prevent further loss from forgery gang, he said cooperation with the Customs Department will be more intense to conduct random check on exported cargoes declared and display of tax refund forms.

Besides the department would also propose a legislation to empower revenue officials to impound the bank accounts and money transactions of suspected companies, he said.

Earlier the department had cracked two major forgery gangs but they were engaged only in issuing fake tax invoices to companies doing business in the country in the construction and production industries. Loss from the fake invoices was about two billion baht, he said, and added that government officials were suspected to have connection with these gangs.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/revenue-officials-crack-major-tax-invoice-forgery-gang/


-- Thai PBS 2014-09-10

[ezzra]

There was a major robbery gang sitting in the government house not too long ago, they called

themselves prim minister, deputy prim ministers, and just plain ministers....

[Lupatria]

May be difficult to find "inactive posts" for these guys but where's a will, there is a path...

[ParadiseLost]

No doubt these 'exports' were included in the GDP...

The entire country seems to be run by (dis)organized crime syndicates.

[Nuddy]

Are there any officials who are not on the "take"?

[SOTIRIOS]

..that's what happens when you give all the advantages to 'locals'.....

....unfair laws against foreigners at every turn......

...no competition.....protected professions...protected industries.......bla, bla, bla......

[Robby nz]

How many more Government Departments will start to find irregularities now that the country is under new management with new ministers and in many cases new department heads ?

Yes I read it, it has been under investigation (we have known about it) for a long time.

Would be interesting to see which companies are involved in these tax frauds and who they are connected with.

Name them and shame them please, loss of face, and business, could well be greater than any fines imposed.

[HUAHIN62]

Are there any officials who are not on the "take"?

They could not do it without official assistance.

[belg]

600 million stolen and a fine between 2.000 to 200.000 baht

seems about right in thainess economics

[ramrod711]

Are there any officials who are not on the "take"?

The law of averages would dictate that there must be, but they don't make the news. The government that was in power for more than a decade, the one that some posters smugly say were elected set the tone for the attitude that corruption is ok. You can't brag about winning 5 straight elections and then say they weren't responsible for anything. The other major factor is law enforcement, even if the police find evidence, the courts won't impose fines or sentences that are deterrents.

[ratcatcher]

600 million stolen and a fine between 2.000 to 200.000 baht

seems about right in thainess economics

Correct, you'd think those extremely punitive fines would be a serious deterrent to wrongdoers. How bad can it get?

[tomacht8]

600 million stolen and a fine between 2.000 to 200.000 baht

seems about right in thainess economics

Even if the state get the 600 million back, the money maximum sentence is a joke.

The interest alone with 2,5% were already 15 Million Baht per year!!!

Edited September 10, 2014 by tomacht8

[Bakseeda]

May be difficult to find "inactive posts" for these guys but where's a will, there is a path...

Where there's a will, there is a dead guy..!!

[tomacht8]

Earlier the department had cracked two major forgery gangs but they were engaged only in issuing fake tax invoices to companies doing business in the country in the construction and production industries. Loss from the fake invoices was about two billion baht, he said, and added that government officials were suspected to have connection with these gangs.

So the state (the public) got the 2.000.000.000 Baht back?
Yes or no?
That is the interesting part here!

Unfortunately, there is in the article not a single sentence were this money is now!
Same with the rice scheme money.
Same with the super cars.
Same with the flood managment money.
etc.

Never a word about the remaining of the stolen money.

[janpharma]

..."Thainess"...pure Thainess...

[surangw]

lots of unreported cash changes hands in the streets of Thailand every day, tax not paid and no way to collect it.

[prabath]

Oh they must check airport also so meny people doing this fake vat refund in there but thai customs,police,dsi,revenue department no need to do anything about it so crazy

[eeeya]

why are the fines always such a joke?

[surangw]

why are the fines always such a joke?

so it does not cut into the tea money paid