Abstract:
This thesis aims at making an analysis of the impact of taxation on Thai society, during the period of taxation reform in the reign of King Rama V to the Revolution of 1932. The purpose of the study is to find out to want extent did the reform in taxation effect the economy and society of the country, taking into consideration social economic structure of the old days, the method of taxation and the taxation reform itself. Thus, social changes in terms of causes, course of action and consequences as result of taxation reform will be better understood. Before the reign of King Rama III, the national revenue derived from taxation in form of corvee and payment in kind. Important change in taxation occurred in the reign of King Rama III, the King assigned a tax farming to certain persons (mostly Chinese) to be responsible for tax collecting, who offered the state a certain amount of money in return. How much profits the tax farmer would gain depended upon the efficiency of his undertaking. The tax farming system yielded a large amount of state revenue during the reign of King Rama III. However, there were lots of shortcomings. First of all, the government could not really control the tax farmer. Consequently, the people suffered from exploitations and unjust taxation, for example, several kinds of taxes which sometimes overlapped one another were levied on the people. The tax farming system encouraged close relationship between officials and the tax farmer, thus, it partly contributed to the growth of officials class. The social system of the old days also enhanced the political power of the officials class who accumulated wealth and profits through their offices in local areas while the central government did not receive the full measure of income from taxation. Therefore, King Rama V considered there should be improvements in the method of taxation as well as reform in finance and public administration. Through royal programme of centralization, the taxation came under proper control of the government. King Rama V began a reform in taxation in 1873 by establishing an Office of State Revenue which enabled the system of taxation more organized and more efficient. Moreover, the reform was considered an important factor in bringing the political power under central control of the monarch because the King could closely control both the income and expenditure of the State through the Office of State Revenue. The political power of the officials of both central and local administration, who once had involved in the the former taxation system and had their hands in its interest, was then on the decrease. Regarding the people, especially farmers; even though there were improvements in the system of taxation, they still had to pay heavy taxes without any direct benefit in return. The government did not allocate the amount of money enough on the development in agriculture and commerce. Since the national security was regarded as a matter of great importance, the government concentrated its spending on the development of national defence. With such a policy, the economic status and the living standard of most people of the country remained unchanged.