Bangkok, The Excise Department smiles. The sweetness tax has reduced sugar-mixed drinks many times. Aiming to drive the economy with excise taxes Move forward with redundant amendments to the law Facilitate investors Showing electric cars growing in leaps and bounds Dr. Ekniti Nitithanprapas Director General of the Excise Department Speaking during the event "92nd anniversary of the founding of the Excise Department" that the Excise Department is committed to implementing ESG policies to drive the economy. Taking care of people's quality of life by 2024, the Excise Department is preparing to continuously push the EASE Excise strategy as follows: ESG policy focuses on excise tax policy. Promote environmental taxes To aim for carbon neutrality, including carbon tax measures by using ethanol in the bioplastics industry. Measures to support the use of electric vehicles (EVs) 3.5 Measures to adjust the battery tax structure to promote the environment. and measures to provide car tax benefits for the disabled an d the elderly. Improving the development of human resources to work in agile ways (Agile ways of working) and developing necessary skills in the future (Future Skills) such as AI and Data Analytics. Developing the excise tax collection process to have standards, such as setting data governance standards. and setting standards for proactively suppressing offenders with relevant suppression agencies. Reviewing current excise tax laws or repealing outdated laws. To reduce unnecessary steps Promoting innovation in providing seamless services (End-to-end Service) to provide convenience to the people receiving services and to increase efficiency of officials in providing services quickly. To have a good experience with the services of the Excise Department. After 2023, the Excise Department issued several important measures as follows: Measures to reduce fuel taxes to alleviate the suffering of the people By exempting from taxes on oil products To be used to produce electricity during the period of abnormally high natural gas prices resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian war, in 2023 the Excise Department must Lost income of over a hundred billion baht To reduce the cost of living of the people Measures to increase the sweetness tax rate at a progressive rate according to the amount of sugar. As a result, beverage manufacturers The excise tax has significantly reduced the amount of sugar in beverages. For example, manufacturers of beverages with more than 14 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters have reduced production to just 46 million liters in 2023 from 819 million liters in 2018. As a result, people will consume less sugary drinks. Reduce the risk of diabetes and related diseases. Excise measures Supporting the use of electric vehicles (Zero Emission Vehicle: ZEV) according to EV 3.0 measures, resulting in 2023 Thailand will have 76,739 ZEV vehicle registrations, growing from 2022 to 646 percent, considered the highest expansion in ASEAN. Meanwhile, Thailand has a total of 21,677 electric motorcycle registration s, an increase of 125 percent from 2022 due to the conditions that the Excise Department sets for entrepreneurs. Participating in the project requires compensatory production of EV cars in Thailand and investment promotion measures, making investment in the electric vehicle and parts industry more than 61 billion baht. Establishment of an online product suppression center to suppress offenders who evade paying excise taxes. In 2023, the results of suppression of cases nationwide were 26,056 cases, higher than the target of 7,531 cases, or equivalent to 40.7 percent. Applying the concept of systematic design thinking and User Experience (UX) to enhance the digital services of the Excise Department to provide taxpayers Currently, there are 96 percent of all excise taxpayers. Paying taxes through the e-service system resulted in the Excise Department receiving the Super Lertrath Award and the Outstanding Digital Government Organization Leader Award for the year 2023. Source: Thai News Agency