The Board of Investment (BoI) has approved adjusting investment privileges and conditions for agriculture categories to promote the bio, circular and green (BCG) economy.
Duangjai Asawachintachit, the BoI's secretary-general, said the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Wednesday approved a new agriculture category applying to high technology, namely plant factories.
A plant factory is a closed growing system that uses artificial control of light, temperature, moisture, carbon dioxide and minerals as well as the biological environments such as contamination of diseases and insects from water, air and plants.
Such products must be high quality, safe and of a sufficient quantity to allow both domestic consumption and exports.
This new category will be entitled to a corporate income tax exemption for five years.
Ms Duangjai said the board also agreed to improve the conditions and privileges for existing agriculture categories to promote more high technology and innovation, in line with the BCG economy.
Those categories include silos, cold storage rooms and logistics systems, animal feed and products available from agricultural byproducts or scraps. They now enjoy corporate income tax exemption for eight years, up from 3-5 years.
In a related development, the board also approved privileges for five investment project applications worth 41.8 billion baht.
The applications included one for Thai Oil, which plans to invest 24.1 billion baht to produce 250 megawatts of electricity and 80,300 tonnes of sulphuric acid in Chon Buri, and another for B.Grimm Power, spending 6 billion baht to manufacture 157MW using steam and natural gas in Chon Buri.
Sammitr Group plans to invest 5.5 billion baht to manufacture 30,000 units of battery electric vehicles a year in Phetchaburi to supply the domestic market, while Envico Co will invest 2.47 billion baht to manufacture recycled plastic PET for the food industry and cosmetics in Rayong.