BANGKOK, 3 January 2018: Staff from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports were recruited to assist visitors who were claiming their VAT refunds at Bangkok’s two gateway airports during the busy festive holiday season.
Holiday traffic peaked over the New Year and will continue to put pressure on customs officials clearing VAT refunds through to 8 January.
The ministry’s permanent secretary, Pongpanu Svetarundra, revealed over the New Year that a site inspection highlighted the urgent need to deploy support staff to assist Customs officials
The main bottleneck for claiming VAT occurred at Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang international airports.
Staff from the ministry’s Tourist Assistance Centre supported Customs during peak hours 0700 and 0900 and again at 2000 to 2200, to facilitate VAT refunds.
“This level of cooperation goes a long way to presenting a positive image and impresses both Thai and foreign tourists,” Pongpan concluded.
Where are the Queues? Clearly there is not queue,
The present minister of MoTS used to say that he would ask the Minister of Finance to consider to let the tourists gain the VAT refund at the spot they buy goods.