Applications for BOI promotional privileges expected to exceed target in 2012

BANGKOK, March 28 (TNA) - Thai Industry Minister M.R. Pongsvas Svasti said on Wednesday he believes that new investment projects applying for the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI)'s promotional privileges will exceed an official target of 600 billion baht this year, and that international investors will not relocate their production bases from Thailand, but, probably, to non flood-prone provinces. M.R. Pongsvas acknowledged, after a BOI board meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong, that applications for the BOI's promotional privileges had totaled some 154 billion baht during the first two months of this year, with Japanese investors remaining on top of the list, or about 46 per cent of the totally-proposed investment value during the January-February 2012 period. According to the industry minister, the BOI, under his ministry's supervision, has approved promotional privileges for 11 new investment projects, totally worth 83.89 billion baht so far this year, some 60 per cent of which, or about 53.83 billion baht, are new projects in Thailand's central Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces hit by the country's massive flooding late last year, signaling that the previously-flooded Thai areas have maintained their potential as investment hubs, particularly for auto parts and power plants. The industry minister told reporters that Wednesday's BOI board meeting also approved tax incentives for new investment projects in Thailand's previously-flood-stricken areas, including Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani, to encourage expanding investment. Under the BOI's fresh resolutions, new or expanded investment projects in Pathum Thani will be exempted from the corporate tax up to eight years, from three years, with the ceiling of the corporate tax waiver raised to 150 per cent of the total value of each of the new investment projects, from 100 per cent currently; while those in Ayutthaya will also be exempted from the corporate tax up to eight years, from seven years, with the ceiling of the corporate tax waiver limited at 150 per cent of the total value of each of the new investment projects, which will then, however, be allowed to pay only half of the corporate tax for additional three years thereafter and to be exempted from import tariffs levied from their imported machines, both new and within-10-year used ones. Eligible investment projects are those seeking for the BOI's approvals by the end of this year. (TNA)