State mulls waiver for tax on stock trading
Possible U-turn after pressure from Fetco
The Finance Ministry is considering the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations’ (Fetco) proposal to extend the waiver of the transaction tax for stock trades because reimposing it can cause trading costs to increase by 70% for general investors and 170% for foreign investors.
The tax has been waived since 1991, but the ministry plans to reimpose it this year.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chairman of Fetco, said the tax will prompt a 40% decrease in liquidity in the Thai stock market and cause the average daily trading value to drop to 50 billion baht, from 80 billion at present.
He said if the daily trading value drops to 50 billion baht, businesses in the technology and S-curve industries…
