It’s with great regret, but no surprise, to hear the proposed land tax has been shelved (BP, March 13). We are famously a tax-avoidance nation, and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha buckled predictably to intense lobbying by the rich landed gentry using the general public’s “tax aversion” uproar to their advantage. The government needs to explain to the “average Joe” how much better off they will be in local public services financed by the property tax, since the threshold really only affects about 10% of the population. For years our leaderships have deferred on this critical tax, demonstrating a lack of moral backbone. It would be one easy way to redistribute the massive wealth inequality that has arisen from property speculation. Those who complain should remind themselves how much wealthier they are after decades of 8% property value inflation. At the very least, tax surplus property, that is, anyone with property they are not living on, or eating off.
JON WILLIAMS
Boost VAT instead
As a student of public finance, I’d point out that the proposed buildings and land tax is, by its nature, regressive — that is it will hit hardest those who can least afford it.
Technically, such a tax is a “wealth tax”, that is a tax on the estimated market value of the property, regardless of the income the owner may generate from the property, which would be used to pay the tax. Such taxes were the reason for the property tax revolts in the US, for example California’s Proposition 13 and the resulting fiscal chaos and dissatisfaction with government that persist to this day.
An example might help explain the problem. If a property owner, farmer or homeowner, through a combination of hard work and some luck, manages to achieve retirement age with an un-mortgaged property, they will be taxed annually on the value of their “wealth” regardless of their income.
As the society ages, either the rate or the estimated value of the property will be increased; either increases the tax collected, to satisfy government needs. Other than selling the property, there is no way the taxpayer can relieve themselves of the tax burden.
In my view, a hike in VAT, a tax on consumption over which a person has some control, is preferable since it is more progressive, assuming VAT is assessed on a base excluding food and other necessities, which consume a higher percentage of the income of the poor than the wealthy.
WILLIAM P KITTREDGE
Rich will find loopholes
There is considerable debate about tax policy, including the proposed land tax and inheritance tax.
It is clear that the government is faced with difficult choices, given the miniscule direct tax base, and its apparent inability to enforce existing income and corporate tax laws.
I am in favour of both inheritance tax and land tax in moderation: However, I have no doubt that the seriously rich will find a way to avoid these taxes, and the middle class will bear the brunt, for very little benefit to state coffers. The administration of these taxes will no doubt be expensive.
The government offers increased VAT as the only alternative to these proposed taxes in order to fund budget shortfalls.
I suggest that there are other taxes that would be good money spinners for the government, would be equitable, and help in re-engineering Thailand.
How about an increased tax on all road vehicle fuel, and taxes on plastic packaging?
Thailand has a notoriously inefficient logistics system, geared towards road vehicles for private and goods transport. The spending on road infrastructure is massive, and funded by all taxpayers.
The heaviest road users should pay the most, and it stands to reason that the relatively well off are more likely to drive cars, to use roads for discretionary travel, such as holiday travel, and to buy transport-intensive goods, whereas the poor, who use motorcycles and buy locally made goods, are less heavy fuel users.
A significant hike in road vehicle fuel taxes would both encourage fuel efficiency and be progressive in the sense of taxing the well off more than the poor. In addition, it would tax foreign tourists, who are disproportionately heavy transport users, in an acceptable way.
As a point of reference, on every litre of unleaded petrol bought in the UK, 61% of the pump price goes to the government as fuel duty and VAT along with 59% of every litre of diesel.
A tax on plastic packaging would function as an “optional” proxy for VAT increases, while having the knock-on effect of increasing the value of plastic waste and reducing the use of plastic packaging, to the benefit of the environment.
I encourage the government to think outside the styrofoam box.
BERNI
Smoke in a teacup
Khun Saksiri (PostBag, March 11) is up in arms about three men who attempted to smoke on a flight from Vietnam. Sure they should be banned by Thai Airways and their cigarettes and lighters should have been confiscated because what they did is against the law, but being prosecuted to the full extent of the law is a bit extreme.
I might remind Khun Saksiri that prior to all of the cigarette hysteria, people smoked on airplanes for about four decades and to my knowledge, no one died from it, although it did annoy a lot of people. Khun Saksiri referred to the lighter as if it was a weapon of mass destruction and he clearly wants blood over this incident. This is the sort of fanatic that the anti-smoking campaign created and now we must listen to them. Khun Saksiri, the entire worldwide anti-smoking movement was created by governments that knew that if they scared everyone badly enough, they could slap draconian taxes on a pack of cigarettes with impunity.
John Arnone
Bilingual is the way
We are very happy that the Ministry of Education is committed to improving the Thai-language skills of children who speak ethnic minority languages, (BP, March 7). But it’s a mistake to blame “language courses in which regional dialects and Thai language are used”.
In fact, bilingual/multilingual education programmes in which hilltribe students learn in their mother tongue and Thai, currently exist in only six schools, while hundreds of other schools in hilltribe areas use Thai only. Detailed evaluations by both Thai and international education experts over the past eight years have found that the ethnic children in the bilingual programmes do much better in Thai language, and all other subjects, than ethnic minority children in Thai only schools.
The reason lies in the human brain. Research has shown that children who learn to read and write their mother tongue first do much better learning second or third languages than children who are “submerged” in a language they do not speak well. This surprises many people, but the evidence is so clear in so many countries that Canadian education expert Jim Cummins has said: “It is not possible to credibly deny the legitimacy of multilingual education for minority and marginalised group students”.
We therefore welcome Education Minister Narong Pipatanasai’s investigation, in the hope that, when the truth about the success of the bilingual education approach becomes known, it can be expanded to hundreds of other schools which serve hill tribe children. In addition, the lessons we have learned in helping hilltribe children learn Thai better can be applied to help Thai children everywhere learn English and other languages better, as part of the national education reform agenda.
Bilingual education is not the cause of hilltribe children’s Thai-language problems; it is the solution!
Asst Prof Wanna Tienmee
Director, Foundation for Applied Linguistics (FAL)
Coup led to stability
Re: “We can learn from Selma marches”, (Opinion, March 12).
Who doesn’t like a message of hope, prosperity and equality? However, being an American and having lived through the civil rights struggle I am certain Rev Martin Luther King Jr in 2015 wouldn’t agree with a divided America whose black leaders have made racial division big business. I have a bias −it’s called law and order, and I still think anyone going into a shop of any colour can’t abuse clerks and steal unpunished. It makes me sick to think the colour of one’s skin has anything to do with politics, and in 2008 and 2012 a half a dozen black politicians come to mind who would have served my beloved USA better than Obama. Thailand has its own set of problems, and say what you will about the army takeover, there is stability in Thailand today.
Theodore Carl Soderberg
Pillion laws miss mark
Once again we have another unenforceable law proposed. If pillion passengers aged under six are banned (BP, March 13), harassed mothers will no doubt have to carry documentation to prove their pillion riding child’s age.
Why not see to it that the existing laws get enforced? Or given more teeth?
Crash helmets: If anyone is caught on a bike not wearing a proper crash helmet, impound the bike, and fingerprint the driver. Require documentation within three months, or the bike gets auctioned off, and the proceeds go towards the cost of the operation. The documentation required would be the driver’s licence (hence the fingerprinting), ownership details (stolen bike?), certificate by the Ministry of Transport and valid insurance.
And don’t make this a nine-day wonder. Maintain the policy until the law is obviously obeyed.
RC Haslock
Let’s hear it for women
The very interesting assessments and suggestions formulated by Dr Babatunde Osotimehin in the March 13 article, “In disasters, women are the backbone of resilience”, deserve to be considered with attention during the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which is to start today in Sendai, Japan.
The expected recommendations of the Sendai Conference must, indeed, reflect the special needs of women in the process of reducing risks generated by natural disasters. In practical terms, such recommendations may lead to significant results only if all members of the world community of nations give full effect to the specific legal obligations already accepted by them on the basis of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an universal legal instrument already ratified by 188 states, but insufficiently implemented both by developed and developing countries alike.
Ioan Voicu
No abuse in Israel
Re: “Civic groups slam Israel over labourers,” (BP, March 11).
Those complaints about Thai workers conditions were addressed and examined carefully by Israeli authorities, and were found to be baseless and false. The organisation of Thai workers in Israel is highly regulated and abides by all laws, and not only their working conditions but also their relationships with their Israeli employers are very good. In a few cases it was found out that Israeli labour lawyers pushed some Thai workers to sue their employers, and, to win their cases, they lied and exaggerated minor problems.
Facts speak for themselves. Fact: The vast majority of Thai workers are more than happy to work in Israel and most of them would love to stay if only their work contracts would allow them. Fact: They work very well, so Israeli employers are also more than happy with them. And as for the 122 “unexplained” deaths of Thai workers in the 2008-2012 period mentioned in that article − researchers concluded that this rate of death is not unusual, and in line with the global average for this number of people. In other words, natural deaths.
NEHEMYA WILHELM
Control van drivers
Another van accident in Pathum Thai this week. The van driver is thought to have fallen asleep. One way to curb excessive van operation accidents is for the Ministry of Land Transport to require van drivers to keep logs of their daily driving hours, the same as drivers of 18-wheelers on cross-country hauls. In order to enforce and prevent cheating, (or at least cut down on cheaters), the vans should be required to stop at either truck weigh-in stations, or, at police/army roadblocks that are appearing with regularity.
Passenger inconvenience is inconsequential when compared with the consequence of death by being crushed in a van collision, being sliced up, maimed for life, or burned to death if the fuel tanks go and the passengers cannot be rescued. All the van reforms so far have been all talk, with no real action.
Perhaps van passengers should be encouraged to become vocal and tell drivers to slow down. If the driver becomes abusive, every person who carries a mobile device, (everyone does), should simply call the police at that moment. Eleven passengers in a van would be able to stop a driver from assaulting anyone.
Yankeleh
Everyone sick of Sek
Sek Loso is a regular on Sunday’s People page. Now well past his heyday as a rock star, he’s trying to make up for the lack of musical success with erratic behaviour, drug problems and exhibiting his marital row. It seems to be the only way left to stay in the headlines. Maturing in style is obviously not his cup of tea. Sek, why don’t you just shut up and play your guitar?
Tom Ritter
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