The cabinet yesterday approved tax breaks for gold futures traders to promote trading and protect investors in the market.
Nathporn Chatusripitak, an adviser to Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, said the tax incentives will be offered especially for Gold-D contracts, which is a physical futures settlement contract.
The incentives allow Gold-D traders on the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX) to enjoy value-added tax waivers and an exemption of the 15% withholding tax for capital gains.
TFEX has three gold derivatives products: gold futures, 10-baht gold futures weighted at 152.44 grammes, and the latest offering Gold-D.
Gold-D is a physical settlement gold futures contract based on gold bars with 99.99% purity. Physical delivery is required upon contract expiry.
Only physical gold stored in designated vaults appointed by a clearing house will be allowed to be used for Gold-D.
Investors will also be able trade for longer hours each day. Night trading will begin at 7pm instead of 7.30pm, while the new pre-order session will start from 6.45pm. The end of trading will be extended from 10.30pm to 11.55pm.
Mr Nathporn said the new tax measures are expected to help upgrade Thailand's gold futures market and develop it into an Asean gold trading centre for 99.99% purity.
He said another goal of the measure is to protect investors against fraud, which is pervasive in online trading.
The Finance Ministry reported the tax measure will not affect revenue, said Mr Nathporn.
In a separate development, the cabinet yesterday acknowledged the Digital Economy and Society Ministry's survey of the number of low-income earners.
The survey was conducted during July 20-Aug 18 with a sample size of 13.43 million people.
The survey showed 68.3% of low-income earners have their own houses, with those living with their parents or relatives making up 25.9%. Those living in rented houses make up 2.4%. The rest live in friends' houses and temples.
Of the total, 31.7% are in the agriculture sector, 28.2% are employees of private firms, 21.6% stay at home (housewives or the elderly), 21.6% are unemployed, 9.7% run their own businesses, 4.1% are students, 2.7% are retirees, and the rest help their family business.
