Thaksin faces revived royal insult case and 17.6 billion baht tax bill
The cases highlight his waning yet enduring influence on the nation’s power structure
[BANGKOK] Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra faces renewed legal troubles after prosecutors moved to appeal his acquittal in a royal defamation case and the country’s top court separately ordered him to pay hundreds of millions of US dollars in back taxes.
The Supreme Court reinstated a tax penalty over Thaksin’s 2006 sale of his telecom company Shin Corp to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, overturning earlier rulings that had voided the Revenue Department’s claim, Lavaron Sangsnit, Finance Ministry’s permanent secretary, confirmed on Tuesday (Nov 18).
The Office of the Attorney-General, meanwhile, has decided to challenge a lower court’s August ruling that cleared Thaksin of lese majeste charges stemming from a 2015 interview with a South Korean newspaper, the Bangkok Post reported.
The twin legal setbacks mark the latest twist in the long-running saga of Thaksin, the billionaire ex-premier who has played a key role shaping Thailand’s politics since the early 2000s. The cases highlight his waning yet enduring influence on the nation’s power structure.
His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Supreme Court hasn’t published Thaksin’s tax case on its website.
Shin Corp’s US$1.9 billion sale – executed without any tax payment – triggered widespread street protests that ultimately led to Thaksin’s ouster in a military coup. This week’s 17.6 billion baht (S$706.3 million) tax bill essentially revives a long-standing dispute over unpaid personal income tax and allows enforcement proceedings to resume.
Shin Corp merged with Gulf Energy Development earlier this year.
Thaksin is currently serving a one-year prison sentence that began on Sep 9, after the top court ruled that his six-month stay in a police hospital in 2023 did not count as time served. BLOOMBERG
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