Thailand’s Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) will reportedly submit a detailed list of 45 recommendations to the Cabinet regarding the nation’s entertainment complex bill that could result in the bill being overhauled.
According to local media outlet The Nation, the FPO will ask the Cabinet to consider each recommendation – compiled from recent public hearings into the matter – and adopt those it deems appropriate, ranging from potential IR locations to the validity period of initial license terms.
Among the recommendations is a call to require the ratio of Thai ownership of any entertainment complex business to stand at between 30% and 51%, and to potentially alter the current 30-year validity period of licenses. Some respondents had called for the period to be reduced to 10 years although others want it extended to 50 or 60 years, the report claims.
Other recommendations include increasing the type of entertainment activities that can be conducted to allow for zones promoting Thai culture.
Preferred destinations include Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Rayong or Hua Hin rather than Bangkok.
The issue of location remains a point of contention, with investment bank JP Morgan recently suggesting that IRs in Bangkok should generate between US$2.5 billion and US$3 billion annually, possibly up to US$5 billion.
