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Thailand’s Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Monday that the ministry’s proposal for collecting tax on earnings from stock trading will be presented to the cabinet shortly.
Without providing a specific timeframe, Arkhom said he will wait for the right time to implement the 0.1-per-cent tax on earnings from each transaction, which is expected to be within this year.
“We will not begin collecting the tax while the stock index is falling on a daily basis,” Arkhom noted.
The minister previously postponed the adoption of the financial transaction tax amid unfavorable economic conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic effects and the war in Ukraine.
According to Arkhom, the tax would apply to all earnings for the selling of shares, regardless of size, and would generate more than 10 billion baht in revenue for Thailand each year.
The Thai government has waived this tax since 1991 in a bid to spur the development of the country’s equity market. But now the exemption will soon come to an end.
The government will give brokerage firms a 90-day grace period to prepare when the tax is declared in the Royal Decree, said Arkhom. Every month, all brokers will be required to transmit the collected tax to the Revenue Department.
“We can’t announce it in advance, but all parties should be notified,” he added.