Thailand’s finance ministry drops plan for financial transaction tax

Picture courtesy of Thai PBS World.

Paopoom Rojanasakul, secretary to the finance minister, announced a reversal from the Finance Ministry’s initial plan to impose a financial transaction tax. This comes after Sirikanya Tansakul of the Move Forward Party (MFP) claimed the ministry’s mid-term fiscal blueprint for 2024 projected revenue of 14 billion baht from the proposed tax.

Paopoom explained that the ministry aims for Thailand’s capital market to maintain high liquidity, stability, trading volume and quality, combined with low funding costs. These factors are essential to attract investors and registered companies.

Furthermore, Paopoom stressed the importance of the Thai capital market’s competitiveness against international markets, particularly Singapore. To foster this competitiveness and support long-term investment, tax incentives for the…