Thai court orders ex-PM Thaksin to pay $706m tax bill over sale of his telecoms firm: Reports
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Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is currently serving a prison sentence in Bangkok for corruption during his time in office.
PHOTO: AFP
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BANGKOK - Thailand’s Supreme Court ordered jailed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Nov 17 to pay back taxes over the sale of his telecoms firm, the judiciary said, with reports putting the sum due at hundreds of millions of dollars.
In 2006, Thaksin was dogged by corruption allegations and mired in controversy over the tax-free sale of shares in his company, Shin Corp.
Later that year, he was ousted as prime minister in a coup and then went into exile for more than a decade.
The 76-year-old politician, one of Thailand’s richest people, is currently serving a prison sentence in Bangkok for corruption during his time in office.
On Nov 17, the Supreme Court overruled an appeals court decision in the tax case, “forcing Thaksin to follow the order by the Revenue Department to pay tax”, court spokesman Suriyan Hongvilai told AFP.
Mr Suriyan did not provide the specific sum to be paid, nor the court’s reasoning for its ruling.
Several Thai media outlets reported that the court ordered Thaksin to pay 17.6 billion baht (S$706 million) in tax liabilities and fines.
Tax officials had slapped the former prime minister with a US$500 million (S$650 million) bill
The controversy centred on whether Thaksin should have paid taxes on the sale of Shin Corp to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings in 2006.
The furore over the deal, which netted the Shinawatra family a US$1.9 billion windfall, was a lightning rod for opposition to his government.
Protests culminated in the coup that booted him from office and sparked years of debilitating political infighting between his supporters and opponents.
The Shinawatra clan has for two decades been the key foe of Thailand’s pro-military, pro-royalty elite, who view their populist brand of politics as a threat to the traditional social order.
But the Shinawatra dynasty has faced a series of legal and political setbacks, including the court-ordered removal of Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn as prime minister in August over an ethics breach. AFP
