New property tax, Prompt-Pay service likely delayed
THE Thai Government’s ambitious plans to launch a new land and building tax law as well as Prompt-Pay service may be delayed due to technical reasons.
The land and building tax law has been scheduled to come into force early next year while the Prompt-Pay service has been set to be ready for use this October.
Pre-registration of the ID banking service generally known among Thais as Prompt-Pay service has been started jointly by commercial banks since July.
Although commercial banks try hard to assure the security of the service, most of the people are either unaware or still have concerns over the security of the system as news about bank ATMs being hacked are still swirling in their heads.
Prompt-Pay will allow money transfer under the national e-payment system and will undercut the current fees charged by banks by offering free service for transactions not exceeding 5,000 baht.
Unlike the current systems, Prompt-Pay will not charge any fee when transferring money to other banks or to the same bank in a cross-clearing zone.
However, the possible delay to the plan to launch the service within this month is not because of the people registering for the service or not.
A client was informed on Friday when registering for the Prompt-Pay service at a Bangkok Bank branch that the service will not be able to start on time, citing “technical reasons” without elaboration.
On the possible delay of the land and building tax law, Deputy Finance Minister Visut Srisuphan said on Friday the bill is now pending the consideration of the Council of State and is expected to be tabled to the cabinet this month before it is sent to the National Legislative Assembly for deliberation which will take between four to five months for the bill to become law.
However he said the delay will not have an impact on the state revenue because the tax collected will go to local administrative bodies.
Under the proposed bill, land is classified into four types in accordance with their usages and taxes are levied accordingly.
Land for agriculture is to be taxed 0.2 percent for plots worth more than 50 million baht/plot. As for land for residential purpose, the first house which is worth less than 50 million baht will be exempted from taxation but for the second home tax will be collected on progressive rates.
The ceiling rate for land for commercial use is two percent for plots worth no more than 20 million baht.
Unutilized land is to be taxed a maximum of five percent.
CAPTIONS:
TOP: A Bank of Ayudhya image by Krungsri Guru promoting Prompt-Pay service.
INSET: Downtown Bangkok looks beautiful on a sunny day but new a tax law looms.
By Kowit Sanandang
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