Appreciating land values near key projects may mean much-needed income for the Thai government
Real estate developers will not be the only ones benefiting from the establishment of rapid transit lines across Bangkok in the near future. Apparently, the Thailand government’s coffers will too.
Property owners who are selling or transferring assets whose value have been boosted by nearby infrastructure projects will be slapped with land development taxes, Bangkok Post reports, citing an anonymous source.
The Thai government is expected to levy the tax only once, at the stage when owners sell or transfer the property. Although the tax is not retroactive, it will be imposed on the difference between the property’s appraisal value before and after the completion of the infrastructure projects.
The source revealed to the Post that Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong had asked the Fiscal Policy Office to expedite the drafting of the land development tax, also known as betterment tax, in line with the government’s eight-year campaign of constructing large-scale infrastructure projects.
Several mass transit lines are in the pipeline for the Thai capital until 2020. The developments are expected to diversify growth in the metropolis and “boost new developments in the outskirts,” Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said in August.