Tax break for NGV cars
The Cabinet yesterday agreed to cut the excise tax on cars running on natural gas from 30 per cent to 22 per cent for 30 months with an eye on saving more than Bt760 million a year on oil imports.
Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya said the tax break would apply to passenger cars with engines up to 3,000cc in size that can use natural gas for vehicles (NGV). The temporary excise tax would be 22 per cent - down from the current 30 per cent - and capped at Bt50,000.Auto-makers are currently ordering engines retrofitted for NGV from other factories, but if they can produce their own NGV engines or include NGV engines in their assembly lines, the excise tax will be sliced further to 20 per cent, he said. The Finance and Energy ministries said that this tax incentive would encourage carmakers to adjust their plants to produce NGV engines, he said. The state would lose some tax revenue, but the measure will help save on foreign exchange. His deputy, Varathep Rattanakorn, said the tax cut was for passenger vehicles with no more than 10 passengers. The promotion of NGV cars should boost them to some 18,000 units a year and save Bt760 million in petrol, he said. Narongchai Wattanakasem, deputy president of the Automobile Industry Association, said every car company was interested in installing NGV engines. GM and Toyota will take the lead in producing cars with NGV engines, while Toyota will start with taxicabs. The Nation
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