Cabinet extends period for tax claims on flood donations
THE CABINET yesterday agreed to extend the period during which tax deductions can be claimed for donations to flood victims and approved plans for the hiring of welfare recipients to repair damaged infrastructure in the flood-affected areas.
Nattaporn Jatusripitak, an adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, said the measures were aimed at bringing relief to those affected by the long-running and widespread floods.
The tax deduction measure for flood donation had been extended from the end of October to the end of December, he said. The measure is calculated on the basis of a donation as a 1.5 times expense deduction.
Seventeen provinces have been declared as flood-hit areas.
Those people registered as low-income earners with the proper qualifications would be hired to repair the damaged infrastructure in the flood-affected areas, Nattaporn said.
In other measures, the number of beneficiaries of a debt moratorium for flood-affected farmers would be increased in the South and in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. Under the programme, the targeted number of farmers will be raised from 212,850 to 260,389, with an additional budget of Bt859.50 million per year for two years.
The Cabinet also approved a plan for the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) to extend Bt1.5 billion in loans to subsidise the price of field corn in an effort to counter the impact of oversupply from September to November.
The BAAC loan will have a 4 per cent lending rate - about 3 per cent of which will be charged to the government, which will set aside a budget of Bt45 million to subsidise interest payments for no more than one year. The remaining 1 per cent will be charged to each farmer group of borrowers.
As of September, field corn output increased by 0.11 million tonnes from last year to 4.43 million tonnes, while about 3.07 million tonnes of field corn - or 69.3 per cent of the total output – is coming to the market from September to November.
This year's demand for field corn is expected to be 8.10 million tonnes, up 0.28 million tonnes from a year ago.
On another front, Government Housing Bank launches six relief measures for their flood-affected customers.
These measures include a reduction in the interest burden to 0 per cent for the first three months and a special lending rate of 3 per cent for loans intended for construction and repairs.
