Thailand to re-impose securities transaction tax after 30 years

Thailand will tax stock transactions again next year after 30 years of waiver.

Thailand’s Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri has recently said that institutional investors in the country will be subject to the transaction tax except for pension funds and market makers.

Under the new regulation approved by the Thai cabinet last week, the tax rate of 0.05% will be applied to securities transactions on the Stock Exchange of Thailand next year and it will increase to 0.1% in 2024. The regulation will take effect 90 days after it’s announced in the Royal Thai Government Gazette.

The Thai government spokesman said that the country’s tax rate is the same or lower than that of other Asian countries. The tax is expected to contribute to the Thai government's budget revenue by about 8 billion THB (230 million USD) in the first year of implementation and could double to 16 billion THB in the following years.

Earlier, Thai Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said that the re-imposition of tax on securities trading would create fairness in tax collection, but would not have a great impact on the market.

Termpittayapaisith stressed the tax will not affect the development of new products on the stock market and retirement savings.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand has a market capitalization of about 20 trillion THB, more than 22 times the figure of 900 billion THB in 1991. The market has about 5 million securities trading accounts with 1 million active ones.

Thailand halted the tax in 1991 to help promote stock trading./.

VNA