The Excise Department is using software to track down suspected smugglers as part of its effort to improve tax collection efficiency, says director-general Lavaron Sangsnit.
He said most smuggling groups communicate with one another on a social media network.
Over the past six months of fiscal 2021, department officials retrieved 1.3 million illegally imported cigarette packs thanks to the software, up from around 300,000 packs per year earlier, said Mr Lavaron.
In addition to tobacco, the department is monitoring the smuggling of alcoholic beverages and oil, which also fetch high prices.
He said the crackdown on tax evasion is part of a necessary effort to increase excise revenue.
The project also forms part of the Finance Ministry's ongoing tax reform that aims to improve tax collection efficiency and suppress smuggling.
During the first nine months of fiscal 2021, the Excise Department collected excise of 416 billion baht, falling short of the target by 11.5% or 54.2 billion.
The department downgraded its tax collection target for the year to 549 billion baht from 630 billion, in line with the ailing economy.
The Bank of Thailand's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) recently slashed its economic growth projection for this year again to 0.7% from its previous forecast 1.8% as the third wave of Covid-19 had a more severe impact on the country's economy.
The MPC also cut its projection for Thai economic growth in 2022 to 3.7%, down from a previous forecast of 3.9%.
The Finance Ministry collected total net revenue of 1.73 trillion baht in the first nine months of fiscal 2021, shy of its target by 10.1% or 195 billion baht, but still 2.9% or 49.5 billion baht higher than the same period in fiscal 2020.
