The government might miss its revenue target for the current fiscal year because of economic impact from the Middle East crisis, says a senior official at the Ministry of Finance.
During the first seven months of fiscal 2026, which began last Oct 1, revenue-collecting agencies worked hard to ensure they did not miss the goal, permanent secretary Lavaron Sangsnit said on Thursday.
However, the outlook for the final five months of the fiscal year is likely to differ from the first seven. In that earlier period, the energy crisis triggered by the war in Iran had not yet fully emerged.
The conflict has contributed to a global economic crisis affecting many countries, including Thailand.
Mr Lavaron said it was still too early to determine by how much revenue collection for fiscal 2026 may fall below the target.
According to budget documents, the government’s revenue target for fiscal 2026 is 2.92 trillion baht.
During the first seven months of fiscal 2026, the government collected 1.50 trillion baht in net revenue, exceeding the target by 31.3 billion baht or 2.1%, and up 5.4% year-on-year.
The increase was attributed to higher domestic value-added tax collections; additional dividend payments from Vayupak Fund I out of retained earnings, as well as dividend remittances that exceeded projections due to improved operating performance at certain state-owned enterprises; and the remittance of surplus proceeds from bond issuance to finance the fiscal deficit.
But tax refunds issued by the Revenue Department, which are deducted from gross revenue, exceeded projections by 13.2 billion baht, or 5.6%, attributed to a policy aimed at improving and accelerating the corporate income tax refund process to enhance efficiency and increase liquidity for businesses.
With respect to government revenue performance during the first seven months of the fiscal year, the Revenue Department collected 1.18 trillion baht, exceeding its target by 2.0%, while the Excise Department collected 338 billion baht, beating its target by 1.9%, and the Customs Department collected 65.9 billion baht, down 6.8% from its target.
State enterprises remitted 131 billion baht to the government, exceeding their target by 9.5%, while other government agencies remitted 113 billion, besting their target by 12.7%.
