Thailand’s Revenue Department has filed a complaint, with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), accusing Xin Ke Yuan Steel Company, the manufacturer of rebar used in the construction of the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building, of using falsified tax invoices to claim value-added tax (VAT) refunds from the department.
DSI Deputy Director-General Sorawut Rangsai said on Thursday that the Revenue Department’s 3rd regional office has discovered that the Chinese company had issued 7,426 false tax invoices between July 2015 and March 2017 for its rebar products worth about 200 million baht and the invoices were used to reclaim VAT refunds from the department.
He said that, even though the alleged fraud occurred before the collapse of the SAO building on March 28th, it is an important case and will be treated as a special case to be investigated by the DSI.
Some of the rebar collected from among the debris of the building have been tested and found to be substandard. They were traced to the Xin Ke Yuan steel foundry in Rayong province.
Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said that the ministry is accelerating the investigations of Xin Ke Yuan Steel and China Railway No 10 (Thailand), which were joint venture partners with Italian-Thai Development (ITD) in the construction of the SAO building in the Chatuchak district of Bangkok.
He said that the probe will determine whether the two companies broke any Thai laws.
He disclosed that initial findings show that China Railway No 10 might have used nominees as its Thai shareholders and that the Thai directors of the company also own shares in 13 affiliated companies.
Regarding Xin Ke Yuan, the minister said that the Chinese shareholding accounts for 80% of the company’s equity and that its directors are linked to 24 other companies, with a total registered capital amounting to 7.6 billion baht.
China Railway No 10 has been awarded 26 government construction projects, some worth more than 10 billion baht, said Pichai, adding that the Comptroller General’s Department is investigating the company and will have it blacklisted if it can be proved that it was involved in illegal business activities or transactions.
