Negative income tax under study
A NEGATIVE-income-tax scheme is being studied by the government as a means of helping people who earn less than Bt30,000 a year.
Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said yesterday that his ministry was studying ways to pay for the proposal.
In May, the Cabinet approved a Bt50 billion assistance package for low-income earners. The government is considering whether funds from this package could help pay for the negative-income tax proposal.
Final details for the tax proposal are expected before October, when fiscal 2018 starts.
A condition for receiving help under the negative income tax programme is that recipients have to apply for career training from the government. The aim is to upgrade their skills so that they can make more than Bt30,000 a year in the future.
This is in addition to the Bt30-billion budget for providing free public services to lower-income earners, such as mass transit, electricity, water, buses and trains.
“Our policy needs to improve the quality of life for lower-income people in the country, but they also have to improve their skills to generate higher income by themselves in the future,” Apisak said.
With a budget of Bt700 million, the ministry has hired 50,000 university students to survey the 14 million people who registered as lower-income in May before the list of qualified people is posted this month.
As for the baht’s appreciation, the currency is being managed by the Bank of Thailand, which has enough measures for the job, Apisak said. However, the private sector also has to manage business risk by hedging foreign-exchange exposures, because the currency will continue to be affected by global economic changes.
“When we manage the currency, that has to concern both the export impact and the investment impact. We believe that the Bank of Thailand has the tools to manage the country’s currency and balance the measures to support both the export and investment markets,” he said.
