Bangkok - Thailand's tax collections fell 29.1 per cent last month, to 82.43 billion baht (2.3 billion dollars), government sources said Tuesday.

Fiscal Policy Office director-general Somchai Sujjapongse said the government had collected 451.52 billion baht (12.54 billion dollars) in tax revenues between October and February, the first five months of the fiscal year.

That amount was 16.4 per cent below projections, the Bangkok Post online news service reported.

"This was due to the global economic downturn and the six-month excise tax cut for oil carried out by the previous government," Somchai told the newspaper.

The decline in tax collections was steepest last month, when government revenues were 22.2 per cent less than targeted and 29.1 per cent less than in February 2008.

While Thailand's tax revenues are spiralling downwards, the government has launched a stimulus package worth 165 billion baht (4.5 billion dollars) to be implemented over the next few months. (dpa)