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Thai ministry of finance fires five revenue officials

Thailand's finance ministry yesterday fired five revenue officials, including the chief of the department, for failing to tax relatives of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a share trading deal.

Revenue Department head Siroj Sawatphanich, who has been criticized in the media for failing to enforce tax regulations in several cases involving Thaksin and his family, was among those fired for "dereliction of duty" and "negligence."

"It was a serious disciplinary issue and there was no other milder penalty for their failure to carry out their duties," Thai Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula told reporters.

The five also face criminal charges over their failure to act against Thaksin.

The cases date back to 1999 when Thaksin was forming his Thai Rak Thai party. Under Thai law, Thaksin was required to sell shares in companies that were doing business with the government. He gave those shares to his relatives and domestic staff and the revenue department ruled they did not have to pay taxes.

Investigations, meanwhile, are under way of several other business deals involving Thaksin's family, including his children, who held the bulk of his family's wealth.

The most controversial deal involved the family's sale of telecommunications conglomerate Shin Corp earlier this year to companies controlled by Temasek Holdings, a Singaporean state-owned company, for 73.3 billion baht (US$2 billion).

The sale drew widespread protests in Thailand because it placed strategic assets, including communications satellites, in the hands of foreigners, and because the deal was structured so that Thaksin's family did not have to pay capital gains taxes on it.

Protests over the sale fueled calls for Thaksin to resign, causing political tensions that culminated in a coup in September that ousted the prime minister.

A Thai government committee ruled earlier this month that officials should collect more than 5.8 billion baht in unpaid taxes from two of Thaksin's children in the sale of Shin Corp shares.

Thaksin's family lawyer, Nopadol Patama, said earlier this month that the family will only pay the taxes if ordered to by a court.
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