The cabinet has endorsed plans to set up "nano financing" operators to provide loans to the poor and to issue state bonds worth 100 billion baht.
The measures are a part of the Finance Ministry's New Year gift package for the public, consisting of four measures, said Finance Minister Sommai Phasee after the cabinet meeting Tuesday.
"The ministry has taken two months to develop this package to be a New Year gift for the people but the prime minister does not want to use the term 'gift', " he said.
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He said the package is mainly aimed at helping low-income people and strengthening the country's competitiveness. It will cost the government 8 billion baht.
He said setting up nano financing operators is the first measure, aimed at giving the poor access to fund sources besides loan sharks who charge them 10-20% a month.
Operators of businesses with registered capital from 50 million baht upward will be allowed to become "nano" financial institutions under central bank criteria.
Interest rates for nano financing would be capped at 3% per month, or 36% a year, with the principal not exceeding 100,000 baht in each case, said Mr Sommai.
Would-be nano financing operators will have to submit their applications this month.
The nano financing operators are expected to begin operation in February next year.
The second measure is to boost the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The Finance Ministry will waive corporate tax for SMEs which make profits of no more than 300,000 baht a year.
The tax rate for SMEs with profits of between 300,001 baht to 1 million baht will remain unchanged at 15% while, those with profits of more than 1 million baht to 3 million baht will enjoy a tax cut of 5% from 20% to 15%.
The tax rate for those making profits of more than 3 million baht will be unchanged at 20%.
SMEs that qualify must have registered capital of not over 5 million baht and sale revenues not exceeding 30 million baht a year.
Mr Sommai said 28,000 SMEs will benefit from the measure which could boost their investment by 700 million baht a year.
The third measure is cutting import tax for 1,274 items of raw materials and machinery to 0-10% from 10-20%.
The last measure is to issue saving bonds worth 100,000 baht to help savers amid the low interest rate environment. The bonds, with interest rates of nearly 4%, will be put up for sale on Jan 12-16 and 19-20.
The bonds will be split into two lots of 50 billion baht each.