Cabinet Approves Draft Property Tax Bill

21 April 2010

The Thai Cabinet has given approval to the draft property tax bill, but has requested that public consultations on the tax rates and its exemptions be held.

The draft was apparently passed amid much debate, with Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij stressing that the real estate tax will help address the gap between the rich and poor.  In the past, many politicians have been opposed to such a property tax, possibly because many of them are owners of large land plots.

The draft tax law is said to target owners of large tracts of land and those with idle land plots.  The tax is intended to be the main source of funding for a Land Bank that would supply land for low income groups, including poor and landless farmers.  Farmers would apparently be exempted from the tax.

The proposed tax rates have not been signed off by the Cabinet as of yet.  The bill still requires approval from the Council of State before it is passed to the Parliament for its deliberation. 

No New Round of Migrant Worker Registration

21 April 2010

Despite the calls by some private sector industries and human rights organizations, Thailand will not open up another round of registration for migrant workers.  Migrant workers, the majority of which come from Burma, were expected to register with the Thai government by 2 March of this year.

The Federation of Thai Industries has come forward calling for the government to conduct another registration drive, as they fear a labor shortage of nearly 300, 000 people.  This projected labor shortage is roughly the number of migrant workers that have failed to register with the Thai Department of Employment.

The process has been criticized for compromising the safety of the workers, as it requires workers to return to their home country as part of the “nationality verification process” (NVP).  Given that many of the workers come from military-ruled Burma, do not possess documents to legalize their work in Thailand, or in many cases, identification documents from Burma, returning to Burma could be dangerous for themselves and their families.

70, 000 workers have registered with the Thai government and completed the NVP.  The checkpoints that are providing NVP services have reported an increase from 600 to 1000 applications per day.

In order to meet the demand for workers, the Department of Employment has requested that Burma send 20, 000 new workers directly from Burma, but will not conduct new registrations for those already existing and working in Thailand.

Related Articles:

Political Instability Suspected to Result in Fewer Business Registrations

13 April 2010

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot reportedly expressed concern that the continuing political instability is likely to reflect negatively on the number of new businesses registering in Thailand as well as lead to an increase in company bankruptcies.

“Businesses that will be hardest hit are construction, property development and tourism because they are highly sensitive to political instability and the country’s safety,” Alongkorn was quoted as saying.

Even though there is a fear that there will be a fall in business registrations, this year has already had record numbers of new registrations, with an increase of 30 percent year on year.  The combined capital investment of the new firms in March, however, was Bt 10.74 billion compared to Bt 24.7 billion in February.

In addition, the Business Development Department has announced relaxed deadlines of one month for submitting their account balance information, normally due on 31st May, as a result of the political turmoil and closing down of operations in the Rajaprasong area.