Cabinet nods to 3 tax measures
The Cabinet yesterday approved three tax measures, Nattaporn Jatusripitak, a spokesman for deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak, said after the meeting.
The first is a tax measure to boost the use of biodegradable plastic packaging with the aim of reducing plastic waste. The companies that purchase this kind of packaging could deduct the expense of purchasing it from their taxes at the level of 1.25 times. This will cover the period of January this year to December 31, 2021, he said.
For example, if the company spent Bt100 purchasing biodegradable plastic, it could deduct Bt125 from taxes. The measure will help the government reduce its cost of dealing with waste, he said.
It is estimated that this measure will cost the government Bt1.3 billion in revenues but help promote the use of biodegradable plastic, he said.
The move will also help Thailand achieve its goal to become the Bio Hub of Asean, Nattaporn added.
The second tax measure approved by the Cabinet yesterday was a two-year extension of the period in which large companies that helped small and medium-sized enterprises could deduct expenses up to a certain amount, said Nattaporn. The extension will allow the deductions until December 31, 2020, instead of the original expiry at the end of December 2018.
The cabinet also approved a draft regulation of the Finance Ministry regarding a tax measure to support fundraising by the Government Housing Bank (GHB), allowing people to exempt from their personal income tax the interest income and lottery prizes from GHB’s lottery. It will come into effective on August 1, 2019.
The Cabinet also approves exempting from personal income tax the interest income from savings deposits with GHB, effective on July 1, 2019.
GHB plans to issue lottery savings worth Bt100 billion in this year through 2020. The first lot will be open to those with an interest in investing in the bank’s lottery in July. It would be open to all interested investors that make a bank deposit before the lottery is issued on August 1 worth Bt27 billion, the bank’s president, Chatchai Sirilai,said.
The bank will use the lottery funds to provide a lower interest rate mortgage loan for its customers worth up to Bt200 billion, with an interest rate not over 3 per cent a year, which is below what customers would normally pay for their mortgages with an interest rate of 4.75 per cent at this time, he said.
