NEW EXCISE RULES MULLED

       The Excise Department plans to change the tax law in order to collect more excise duties from auto-makers, beverage producers and operators of nightclubs and discotheques.
       Chumpol Rimsakorn, director of the legal office at the Excise Department, said yesterday the agency's idea was to calculate tax based on the retail price instead of on the factory price, which is the current practice.
       Manufacturers such as auto-makers have taken advantage of a loophole in the excise law by declaring artificially low prices in order to avoid full tax payment, he told participants at a seminar on excise matters.
       He said the department wanted to review the calculation formula by collecting tax on a retail-price basis instead. Otherwise, it will tell manufacturers that the new tax formula will be in line with that for imported items.
       The department also claimed that producers of energy beverages had taken advantage of a legal loophole by mixing fruit juice into their products and paying less tax.
       Chumpol said the agency would require producers to increase the proportion of fruit juice to the international benchmark level if they wanted to pay less excise duty.
       Operators of nightclubs and discos, meanwhile, may in future have to pay full taxes as the department will revise regulations related to this type of business.
       It will put in place a new definition of nightclub and disco businesses in order to solve the problem of operators declaring themselves as restaurants to avoid tax, Chumpol said.
       Tax officials will no longer have to rely on their personal judgement as to who is subject to excise payment when clear rules are put in place, he said.
       Chumpol added that the department expected to propose the legal changes to the Cabinet in October, with possible implementation by the end of the year.