Economists urge Thailand to prioritise growth-oriented spending

The ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) assessed Thailand’s economic outlook and said that the pace of rebuilding fiscal space could be speeded up by introducing additional revenue-enhancing measures as well as tax policy and administrative reforms.

The AMRO economists suggested that Thailand consider restoring the value-added tax (VAT) rate to 10 percent from 7 percent. This should be complemented by financial assistance to lower-income individuals to ease their burden, streamlining deductions for personal income tax to align with the economic environment, and reforming corporate income tax incentives shifting away from tax holidays to more targeted tax incentives on new capital expenditures.

The Thai government has set a goal of 5% economic growth. The economists believe that the digital wallet scheme could boost gross domestic product by as much as 2 percentage…