The cabinet approved several measures at a five-hour meeting on Tuesday, from motorcycle taxi rates to tax breaks aimed at boosting private investments and savings.
To help rubber planters who are operating below cost, 12 billion baht was approved to help them. The ratio plantation owners and tappers will get is 60:40 or 900 baht and 600 baht.
Only planters with land titles will be eligible. Those without them will be assisted by the rubber board.
Corn farmers will also be asked to grow less due to oversupply.
Rice farmers will be recommended to switch to other crops such as soybean because of water shortages, expected to be more acute next year.
Main dams now hold 4.4 billion cubic metres in total and authorities can discharge no more than 20-30 million cu/m a day.
No more haggling
The cabinet also approved a ministerial order draft on motorcycle taxi rates, at not more than 25 baht for the first two kilometres, 5 baht for each of the next 3-5 kilometres and 10 baht for each of the next 5-15 km.
The fares for rides longer than 15km are negotiable or riders and passengers can use the 10 baht/km rate.
Longer LTF holding
For salary earners, the tax break of long-term equity funds (LTFs) was extended by three years to 2019 but the holding period became seven calendar years instead of five.
LTF buyers can deduct the investments at up to 15% of their annual taxable incomes but not more than 500,000 baht each year.
Up until now, they must hold the units for at least five calendar years before they can sell them, or return the tax benefits.
PPP streamlined
As for public-private partnerships (PPP), a model earmarked for infrastructure development, guidelines were approved to shorten the setup procedure to nine months from two years at present.
"By integrating the services of different agencies, the process can be shortened to nine months," said Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong after the meeting.
Eight PPP projects worth 347.57 billion baht in total will be implemented in 2016-17. They are: the Khae Rai-Min Buri section of the Pink Line; the Lat Phrao-Samrong section of the Yellow Line; the Bang Sue-Tha Phra section of the Blue Line; the Bang Pa-in-Nakhon Ratchasima motorway; the garbage factories of the Nonthaburi provincial administration organisation and the Nakhon Ratchasima municipality and the Maritime Business Center project on Port Authority of Thailand's land.
Spend more, please
To spur private investments, the cabinet approved a tax break for companies, which can now deduct the equivalent of two times their investment expenses related to core businesses.
Eligible investments are on machinery, components, equipment, tools, computer programs, vehicles and permanent buildings (excluding land costs and permanent structures for accommodation), according to a Finance Minister news release on Tuesday.
They must also be purchased from Nov 3 this year to Dec 31, 2016 and the assets must be delivered and function during the period.
The deduction will be applied in equal amounts starting from the first accounting periods they can deduct depreciation expenses of the items.
Operators who already received Board of Investment (BoI) privileges can apply for the tax break if the investments are for new projects, not the ones already enjoying BoI perks,
For BoI-approved projects of which investments have yet to be made, owners can choose to receive either the BoI privileges or the expense deductions under the new measure.
If they choose the latter, they must register with the Revenue Department and inform the BoI by Dec 31 this year.
