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Thailand: Online payment for overseas packages
The Customs Department will allow those who buy small goods priced over 1,500 baht from vendors outside Thailand to pay import duties online, eliminating the need to pick up parcels at Laksi Post Office.
With the Customs Department’s digital system, buyers can track the customs-clearing process and pay import tariffs via the online channel, outgoing director-general Kulit Sombatsiri said without specifying when the system will become available.
When buyers completely pay the import duty, the Customs Department will send parcels by mail and there will be no need to pick up deliveries at the Laksi Post Office any more, he said.
When any goods are purchased online from foreign-based sellers by Thais, the packages are shipped by air to the Customs Office at Suvarnabhumi airport before being redirected to Laksi Post Office, where buyers must pick up the products and pay the import duty.
Products bought from vendors outside Thailand worth below 1,500 baht are tax-exempt.
To prevent buyers from falsifying values to take advantage of the tax waiver, the Customs Department has adopted an X-ray system to help inspect packages, Mr Kulit said, noting that the department plans to buy one more X-ray machine to add to the existing one.
The stringent inspection has also helped guard against illegal goods, including marijuana and crystal meth, of which hundreds of parcels are sent by mail every month.
In a related development, the Customs Department is developing big data system to scrutinise importers that have suspicious behaviour related to avoiding tax payments.
To raise the penalty for those who makes fake declarations, the tax-collecting agency plans to issue a regulatory announcement that those who understate the imported product value for some items can no longer settle the case at customs officials’ level, but instead their cases will go to court, Mr Kulit said.
The department is adopting the National Single Window, a customs portal that pools the import licence approvals for all 33 related agencies in a single place to comply with the government drive to ease doing business in Thailand, he said.
Under the pilot project, the Customs Department will link and share information with some state agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1527410/online-payment-for-overseas-packages