Govt woos foreign filmmakers with tax breaks

The cabinet yesterday agreed to waive personal income tax for foreign actors for five years in a bid to attract foreign film productions to the country, deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said.

Revenue from foreign film productions is growing and last year alone the industry generated about 5 billion baht for the economy. The average income from foreign film productions during 2017-2021 stood at around 3.5 billion baht per year.

Ms Rachada said the government has introduced rebates for expenditures, with a maximum of 75 million baht, as an incentive for foreign film productions. While the waiver of personal income tax for foreign actors is expected to cost the country 71.75 million baht over the next five years, earnings of about 17.5 billion baht from foreign film productions are also expected for the same period, she said.

Meanwhile, the cabinet yesterday approved an extension of the Rao Tiew Duay Kan (We Travel Together) tourism co-payment scheme to the end of October with 1.5 million more room rights added to the scheme to stimulate local tourism.

Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said the extended scheme will be funded by a leftover budget estimated at 5.5 billion baht as of May 30.

The government is expected to spend 5.1 billion baht to fund the extended scheme, said Mr Thanakorn.

On Jan 24 this year the government approved a budget of 9 billion baht to fund the scheme, which was originally scheduled to conclude at the end of May.

As of May 30, about 9.3 billion baht was spent on the tourism promotion scheme and of this, 3.4 billion baht was provided by the government.

The scheme extension follows the Thailand Travel Mart Plus 2022 in Phuket held from June 8-10, which was expected to generate tourism revenue of 1.29 billion baht.