BANGKOK, March 13 — Plans by the government to collect land and buildings tax, aimed at narrowing social disparities and enabling the state to collect more taxes, are postponed to an indefinite period because people are still suffering from general economy in the country, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha reiterated Friday.
He told journalists that his government wanted to restructure the country’s tax system first, stressing that land and buildings tax is “tax for the future.”
However, majority of the people are still suffering from prevailing economy, therefore, the plan has to be delayed for a certain period and the government will now have to inform the people on how the government spends the tax money on developing the country.
Tax money is part of government’s revenues and the collection is about 10 per cent of the total, he said, adding that the government will adjust tax collection, especially from the rural area and the rural administrative organisations will be asked to be responsible.
If they could manage, it would save the state budget by as much as Bt260 billion annually.
Currently, tax collected from rural area is more than Bt70 billion annually only and if the collection continues declining and the central government will have to support it, the revenue of the central government would fall and eventually affect its investment, said Gen Prayut.
He did not say how long the review on tax system would take while stressing that tax collection in Thailand is now very low. (MCOT online news)
