The Finance Ministry is seeking cabinet approval to waive import tariffs on more than 1,000 items, says Customs Department director-general Kulit Sombatsiri.
If approved, 56 categories of imported goods and a total of 1,100 items will be allowed into the country without tariff, Mr Kulit said.
Although the tariff waivers will shrink tax revenue by about 3 billion baht, it will help local manufacturers with their cost of materials, especially intermediate types used in the final production stage of high-value goods.
Under the current import tariff structure, Customs waives import duty for goods that local producers require as raw materials and capital goods. Intermediate materials or those in semi-production are charged at 3% and final products or ready-to-use items incur 7-10%, depending on the category.
The tariff on intermediate products will be abolished because those items are materials for value-added products and government policy is to promote value-added industry to strengthen Thailand's competitiveness, Mr Kulit said.
"Some items will be able to ship in without tax," he said. "Basically, we set the tax rates on import duty for various products. Some local producers still require safeguarding from imported goods."
Customs has set a revenue target for fiscal 2016 ending in September of 124 billion baht. Despite the proposed tariff cuts, the department still hopes to meet the target.
In the first three months of fiscal 2016, Customs collected 31 billion baht to surpass its target by 1.8%.
Apart from the new tariff rates, Customs is also trying to improve efficiency in many aspects of trade facilitation. For example, it is applying standard prices to imported goods.
Goods prices require officials to survey several markets to ensure that importers are taxed based on fair market prices. Standard prices will be applied as base prices to be used at all eight checkpoints nationwide.
"This year, we aim to finish the standard prices for the first 36 items, mostly soft commodities such as onion and garlic," Mr Kulit said. "These goods are the most heavily imported items."
Standard prices applied across the board will help prevent mistakes of individual judgement.
Customs is also developing a mobile app for use by checkpoint officials as a tool for monitoring import-export volume.
Other changes include a revision to the rule that gives those transiting cargo to other countries unlimited time for storage at the checkpoint depot.
Under the new rule, they can leave their goods before transiting to other countries for no longer than 90 days. If they fail to collect their goods within 90 days, the goods will be seized and become government property.
The move is aimed at cutting Thailand's cost of storage and maintenance, especially for used cars, and the government hopes to make more revenue from the storage space.