Government House, 15 Oct. - "Pichai", Finance Minister, explains flood relief measures, prepares to release soft loans to help the tourism sector, 50,000 million baht, hoping to revive tourism, reveals that the Cabinet has approved 10,000 baht in mud cleaning assistance, exempting the relief money from tax. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira, at the Cabinet meeting, approved the criteria for flood relief, stating that there will be 9,000 baht per household for assistance and 10,000 baht for mud cleaning. The Ministry of Finance will have a measure to exempt personal income tax in the case of receiving compensation, which does not have to be included as income. If it is a juristic person, it will be exempted from income tax. In the case of donating items, it will also be exempted from income tax. The Treasury Department will exempt flood victims from rent for 1 year in the case of partial damage, and exempt rent for 2 years in the case of complete damage. As for farmers, the Treasu ry Department will exempt rent for 1 year. Flood victims whose businesses are affected and cannot open their businesses within 3 days or more than 3 months will be exempted from rent, but it will be considered on a monthly basis. While assistance from state banks, such as the Government Savings Bank, will provide soft loans or low-interest loans of 50 billion baht for SMEs, 16 commercial banks will consider granting loans at an interest rate of 3.5 percent for a period of 2 years, with a credit limit of no more than 40 million baht per person. For loans of no more than 10 million baht, there will be a measure to suspend the principal without interest for 6 months. In addition, for credit cards, the initial payment rate will be adjusted to no more than 3 percent in 3 billing cycles. For the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the maximum debt repayment period will be extended to 30 years for normal debtors and those with no bad debts. In addition, there will be an emergency liquidity adjustmen t loan of no more than 50,000 baht per person and a loan of no more than 3 years, with an interest rate of 0 percent in the first 6 months. Loans will also be granted for no more than 15 years for home repairs, equipment, and agriculture, not exceeding 500,000 baht per person. The GH Bank has measures to help reduce installments by no more than 50 percent and interest rates by no more than 2 percent for a period of 6 months. Meanwhile, NPL customers, if they have collateral for 1 year, can negotiate debts for no more than 1 year with an interest rate of 0 percent. If it exceeds 1 year, an interest rate of 1 percent is charged. There is also a home repair loan for no more than 2 million baht per person with an interest rate of 0 percent for the first 3 months. The remaining installments can be paid in installments of 2-6 percent. As for Islamic banks, there will be a suspension of principal payments and only profits will be paid within 6 months. Mr. Pichai also said that for investment promotion, they are cu rrently considering issuing regulations as a royal decree, such as tax deduction measures for construction material purchases that can be used as tax deductions, extending the tax filing deadline, exempting the import of machinery to replace damaged machinery. In addition, there will be a soft loan for the tourism sector worth 50 billion baht to accelerate the recovery of tourism. -314.-Thai News Agency Source: Thai News Agency
