The Thai Bankers' Association (TBA) is holding a meeting on Tuesday to seek options, including electronic consent and a one-time permission for all deposit accounts, to facilitate depositor compliance with the Revenue Department's demand for interest income data.
Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of the Revenue Department, insisted there is no policy to ease requirements and the meeting with the TBA is to discuss practical guidelines for submitting interest income information.
Several methods will be proposed at the meeting to provide the most convenience to depositors, said Kobsak Duangdee, secretary-general of TBA.
Electronic consent via mobile banking apps and consent for all deposit accounts opened at any bank are among options to be discussed, he said.
Mr Ekniti issued a notification on April 4 demanding all depositors offer permission for banks to report their interest income information to close a loophole used by some small banks in helping their customers avoiding for the tax payment.
Those with an annual interest income of less than 20,000 baht are required to consent in exchange for maintaining the 15% withholding tax income waiver.
"Most depositors will continue to receive the withholding tax exemption if they comply with the requirement because a minority of deposits earn interest income of more than 20,000 baht per year," said Mr Kobsak.
Depositors who are subject to the 15% withholding tax on interest must have minimum deposits of 4 million baht. Only 700,000 of the 83 million savings and current accounts have deposits over 4 million baht.
In another development, the TBA in collaboration with commercial banks, state-owned banks, and policymakers including the Bank of Thailand are implementing the second phase of an e-learning platform aimed at encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to protect them against foreign exchange risks.
The platform targets 5,000 small importers and exporters with annual income of up to 400 million baht to apply for the foreign exchange option programme and 3,381 SMEs have already joined the scheme.
The e-learning platform would make participating in the project more convenient for SMEs, adding value to the first scheme, for which 2,683 joined.
Vachira Arromdee, assistant governor for the central bank's financial markets operations group, said the Bank of Thailand and all related parties will continue to develop the foreign exchange option programme to encourage SMEs and importers to protect against risks from foreign exchange. Risk is expected to escalate as global uncertainties mount.
Despite lower than targeted participant numbers, the second phase should build up exporters' and importers' awareness of risk protection, Ms Vachira said.