Economics
Purchasing power for homes still high despite political turmoil
The current political crisis has not impacted the public demand for owning homes, according to an industry executive. Bunyong Visatemongkolchai, president of Bangkok Commercial Asset Management Company, said the public’s purchasing power remains high although the political standoff continued unabated.
Incomes earned by many people are still sufficient to be set aside for a house purchase given the current low lending rates.
In addition, the government’s move to extend a measure to reduce ownership transfer and mortgaging fees may have increased potential purchasers’ decisions to buy homes.
Because of this, he predicted that home purchases will continue growing satisfactorily in the first half of this year.
via Purchasing power for homes remains high despite political turmoil.
Thai property developers, despite being some of the first local companies to get hit by the global financial crisis, have shown resilience and delivered strong results for investors. When the crisis ignited on Wall Street hit Thailand, our economic engine stalled early in 2009 and so did developers’ sales and revenues. Later, as investors tried to rebuild their diminished wealth, they turned to the very sector they had abandoned first, property development. With a one-year total shareholder return (TSR) of 132% last year, property development was the SET’s third best performing sector, in stark contrast to 2008’s lacklustre -43%. The sector comes under the Property & Construction industry, as defined by the SET, the exchange’s fifth largest sector with a market cap of 351.4 billion baht.
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Economics
50:50 campaign may not get immediate extension

BANGKOK (NNT) – The government’s 50:50 co-pay campaign expiring on 31st March may not be getting an immediate campaign extension. The Minister of Finance says campaign evaluation is needed to improve future campaigns.
The Minister of Finance Arkhom Termpittayapaisith today announced the government may not be able to reach a conclusion on the extension of the 50:50 co-pay campaign in time for the current 31st March campaign end date, as evaluations are needed to better improve the campaign.
Originally introduced last year, the 50:50 campaign is a financial aid campaign for people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the government subsidizes up to half the price of purchases at participating stores, with a daily cap on the subsidy amount of 150 baht, and a 3,500 baht per person subsidy limit over the entire campaign.
The campaign has already been extended once, with the current end date set for 31st March.
The Finance Minister said that payout campaigns for the general public are still valid in this period, allowing time for the 50:50 campaign to be assessed, and to address reports of fraud at some participating stores.
The Fiscal Police Office Director General and the Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Kulaya Tantitemit, said today that a bigger quota could be offered in Phase 3 of the 50:50 campaign beyond the 15 million people enrolled in the first two phases, while existing participants will need to confirm their identity if they want to participate in Phase 3, without the need to fill out the registration form.
Mrs Kulaya said the campaign will still be funded by emergency loan credit allocated for pandemic compensation, which still has about 200 billion baht available as of today.
Economics
Customs Department Considers Measures to Help SMEs

BANGKOK (NNT) – The Customs Department is seeking ways to reduce the impact of the exemption on import tax and value-added tax (VAT) for imported goods worth up to 1,500 baht, as such measures are hurting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
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