Thailand
Thailand: Call for tax cut to help flood-hit businesses
Company executives want the government to help flood-hit entrepreneurs with a corporate income tax reduction, according to a Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) survey of its members.
Most of the 176 executives surveyed in the latest FTI poll, some 67.6%, want authorities to allow affected business operators to reduce their tax burden by offsetting the money they spent to repair flood-damaged assets, said Montri Mahaplerkpong, vice-chairman of the federation.
The No.2 option, with 65.9% of votes, was for the government to offer entrepreneurs a loan with an interest rate of 1% under a rehabilitation programme.
This was followed by the establishment of a fund for flood risk insurance purposes (48.3%) and help from the Social Security Office to co-pay half of salaries (43.8%).
The poll was conducted after many parts of Thailand were hit by heavy rainfall and river runoff during September and October.
The flooding drew different reactions from FTI executives.
A total of 53.4% of the respondents said they were moderately worried about the situation, said Mr Montri.
Some 28.4% said they were highly concerned about the flooding, while only 18.2% said they had little worry about the situation.
The two-month flooding was frequently compared with the great flood of 2011, when many factories were inundated.
Many firms are still haunted by the great flood, especially those located near the Chao Phraya River, which runs through the central region from Nakhon Sawan to Bangkok and Samut Prakan, Kriengkrai Thiennukul, chairman of the FTI, said earlier.
That year, the huge volume of water ravaged factories, including those in industrial estates, he said.
Looking ahead to next year, 47.7% of the respondents said they were worried about the risk of a new round of flooding, while 39.2% said they were concerned about drought.
Only 13.1% of the executives said they were not worried.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2428545/call-for-tax-cut-to-help-flood-hit-businesses