Thai government approves measures to stimulate private investment
Thailand’s Government has approved incentives to spur private investment of 110 billion THB (about 3.56 billion USD) and add 0.25 percent to economic growth in 2020.
Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s Government has approved incentives to spur private investment of 110 billion THB(about 3.56 billion USD) and add 0.25 percent to economic growth in 2020.
The measures include a corporate income taxdeduction of 2.5 times expenditure on machinery, a one-year tax exemption forimporting new machinery, and special-rate loans offered by the Export-ImportBank of Thailand for exporters to alter their machinery for export.
The tax measures apply to new machinerypurchased from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2020. The 2.5-time tax deduction is notapplicable to leased machinery.
The measures are estimated to cost thegovernment 8.6 billion THB in forgone tax revenue, said Narumon Pinyosinwat, agovernment spokeswoman.
According to Narumon, the cabinet has approveda 350-million-THB budget to compensate Exim Thailand for the special interestrates.
The Thai Finance Ministry said the fresh measuresare essential to stimulate private investment and the local economy this yearbecause of the uncertain global economy and the US-China trade war's impact onthe export sector.
Another batch of investment stimulus measuresinitiated by the Board of Investment (BoI) will seek cabinet approval on February6.
According to a report by the National Economicand Social Development Council, the country's private investment is forecast togrow by 4.2 percent in 2020, as compared with 2.8 percent in 2019, 3.9 percentin 2018 and 2.9 percent in 2017./.
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Illustrative image (Photo: bangkokpost.com) 
