Thai court fines Morris $39.7 mn for tax evasion

Bangkok: A court in Thailand on Friday found the local unit of tobacco giant Philip Morris guilty of evading taxes by under-declaring the value of cigarettes it imported from the Philippines. It ordered the company to pay a fine of 1.2 billion baht (USD 39.7 million).

The Criminal Court found Philip Morris Thailand as a company guilty but acquitted seven employees for lack of evidence they were responsible.

The company said it would appeal the ruling.

Thailand's state prosecutor filed criminal charges in 2017 against the company, accusing it of evading more than 20 billion baht (USD 662 million) in taxes between 2003 and 2006.

The case triggered an international trade dispute, with the Philippines charging that Thailand's import tariffs were unfairly used to give an advantage to the state-controlled Thailand Tobacco Monopoly. Manila won a ruling from the World Trade Organisation that Thai customs authorities were unfair and had not acted according to WTO rules.

Philip Morris consistently maintained that the charges against it were meritless, and that both Thai and World Trade Organisation authorities have confirmed that our declared import prices comply with Thai and international customs laws.