Nearly 1.2M People Tap Thai Govt's First Car Scheme Rebate

[webfact]

Nearly 1.2m tap first car scheme rebate

Supannee Putthapisuth

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- At least 1.1 million people have applied for tax rebates under the government's first-car programme, and the number is expected to reach 1.2 million before December 31 when the scheme ends.

With some 1.1 million first-car buyers applying for a maximum rebate of Bt100,000 each, about Bt73 billion in rebates will be disbursed, according to the Excise Department.

Somchai Poolsavadi, director-general of the department, said he expected the number of applications to reach 1.2 million by the end of the programme.

In response to Honda's complaint that the Excise Department had allowed Toyota's Vios to be eligible for the scheme after minor changes to the model although it has not been manufactured and marketed yet, Somchai said Toyota had met the eligibility requirements.

"Toyota has met the requirements of the first-car scheme and the Excise Department has given approval with transparency. There is no preferential treatment for any carmaker."

Regarding the restructuring of excise tax for cars based on carbon-dioxide emission, Somchai said it was proper to give a grace period of three years to carmakers to adjust to the new requirements.

-- The Nation 2012-12-22

[lizardtongue]

That should read 1.1 million Thai people as I believe the scheme is not open to foreigners of course there will be quite a few foreigners who will be footing the bill but not collecting the rebate!

[kartman]

One debt collection agency forecasts 20% of loans will go bad so how many months can grandma have the vehicle with the down payment and instalements to collect the rebate and have free motoring? .

[chainarong]

It beggars belief that most western countries are trying to get the car off the bloody roads , this crowd of donkeys are actually encouraging people to place more on the roads, just go's to show they will use any common denominator to buy votes, come to think of it, I guess the high speed train network will alleviate most problems , well almost

[Moruya]

Where do all these billions of dollars come from?

[bigbamboo]

The second hand Vios market should be booming next year.

[steelepulse]

One debt collection agency forecasts 20% of loans will go bad so how many months can grandma have the vehicle with the down payment and instalements to collect the rebate and have free motoring? .

That number seems a bit low.

[smileplur]

The second hand Vios market should be booming next year.

You are aware that you must own the car for a period of 5 years or you are required to return the money.

[rixalex]

Where do all these billions of dollars come from?

It's the sort of money that could have gone an awful long way to putting in a proper permanent bus lane in throughout Bangkok. Not one that can be ignored, but one that is strictly enforced. Would get the buses flowing well and would snarl up private vehicles even more. Incentive for people to start using public transport more.

[Thait Spot]

Where do all these billions of dollars come from?

It's the sort of money that could have gone an awful long way to putting in a proper permanent bus lane in throughout Bangkok. Not one that can be ignored, but one that is strictly enforced. Would get the buses flowing well and would snarl up private vehicles even more. Incentive for people to start using public transport more.

I heard somewhere that the cash would have funded another rail line

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect App

[MaxLee]

If there are more cars on the road per year, the Bangkok City officials think about 'building more roads', building more roads means more construction, more construction more traffic jams, because those road projects along with those other Mega projects take 5-10 years to finish or more,…

,… ah did I forget to. Mention that all above this increases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which means more unregulated weather aka natural tsunami-flood-and-drought-deterioration-master-disaster???

Thailand builds more than they invest in the necessary infrastructure.

[ratcatcher]

One debt collection agency forecasts 20% of loans will go bad so how many months can grandma have the vehicle with the down payment and instalements to collect the rebate and have free motoring? .

Does grandma actually think about the hidden costs of operating a motor vehicle, any motor vehicle?

Fuel,oil, maintenance & insurance & road tax.As a previous poster mentioned, what happens to the cars when paybacks fail? And they will.

As bigbamboo points out "The second hand Vios market should be booming next year"

Not a real exaggeration.

[lomatopo]

It seems like the program was successful - overall I think it was a win-win-win (jobs - fuel efficient - transport). Now maybe they should consider incentives for scrapping of older cars for more fuel efficient ones? Or emissions inspections/requirements, with surcharges for those that exceed the limits.

Edited December 22, 2012 by lomatopo

[Fozfromoz]

One debt collection agency forecasts 20% of loans will go bad so how many months can grandma have the vehicle with the down payment and instalements to collect the rebate and have free motoring? .

Does grandma actually think about the hidden costs of operating a motor vehicle, any motor vehicle?

Fuel,oil, maintenance & insurance & road tax.As a previous poster mentioned, what happens to the cars when paybacks fail? And they will.

As bigbamboo points out "The second hand Vios market should be booming next year"

Not a real exaggeration.

Think.........ahead.........here? You are a comedian sir.

[Thai at Heart]

Has anyone ever heard of the tax department clawing back tax deductions like this?

[rixalex]

It seems like the program was successful - overall I think it was a win-win-win (jobs - fuel efficient - transport).

Win win win? Really?

They helped the likes of Honda and Toyota - who are known to really struggle selling cars here.... not - to sell cars a bit quicker than usual. No evidence that the cars they sold wouldn't have been sold anyway.

Moreover, they structured the scheme in such a way that the car price remained exactly the same. Rebates come after one year. Which is fine for people who could already afford to buy the car, but for those on lower incomes, the people who the scheme was supposed to be helping, for them it remained just as difficult to buy a car.

So they have helped people who could already afford to buy a car (and most probably would have bought one anyway) and they have helped a few massive global car companies shift stock quicker than normal. Wonderful eh?! And all that at the cost of billions of baht of tax payers' money.

[rubl]

Meanwhile back here on Earth, I took the BRT from NaraRam3 to Sathon around 6PM last evening. Not too crowded (yet). Always nice to look at the traffic building up on Narathibet while passing. Walk to BTS Chongnonsri getting more crowded. Train coming and the jampacked feeling starts to make itself known again. Switch trains in Siam station, longer trains on the Sukhumvit line as well, helps a bit. Now only full, but not packed. Get out at BTS Victory Monument. Fun outside, well, Friday evening. Motorcycle towards Ratchawat, zigzagging along.

I can report to all here, from what I've seen there is still space on the tarmac even at rush hour. Bring in some more personal vehicles :-)

[Ricardo]

How can truly-poor people afford to purchase brand-new cars ?

Are all Thais now rich, as promised pre-election, or is this scheme mainly benefiting the already-comfortable middle-classes, at the expense of schemes which benefit the real-poor ?

Low-cost housing, free-electricity for marginal-users, free short-distance 3rd-class rail-travel, free hospital-treatment (again), putting electricity into those schools without it, extending ID-cards to all those born within the boundaries of the country, reforming land-rights (long-promised by governments of all hues), increasing the old-age/disablement pensions, to name but a handful.

[rixalex]

How can truly-poor people afford to purchase brand-new cars ?

Are all Thais now rich, as promised pre-election, or is this scheme mainly benefiting the already-comfortable middle-classes, at the expense of schemes which benefit the real-poor ?

Low-cost housing, free-electricity for marginal-users, free short-distance 3rd-class rail-travel, free hospital-treatment (again), putting electricity into those schools without it, extending ID-cards to all those born within the boundaries of the country, reforming land-rights (long-promised by governments of all hues), increasing the old-age/disablement pensions, to name but a handful.

How can truly-poor people afford to purchase brand-new cars ?

The truly poor can't. The moderately poor might have had a chance, had they devised the scheme in such a way that the 100k baht came off the selling price. For example, the government could have paid the 100k directly and immediately to the finance companies once a car was sold to an eligible lower income person, and that way getting finance would have been easier and repayments more affordable for lower income people.

Gearing the scheme that way would have been better... better, but, as you rightly point out, there are so many other areas that could have been looked at to help the poor that would have been potentially so much more useful and bring so much more long term gain.

But when all is said and done, what wins votes more than feeding materialistic appetites and urges, be it discounted shiny new red plate cars, or be it dishing out iPad tablet lookalikes? That's all the scheme was ever about, and on that basis, it worked.

[Suradit69]

Where do all these billions of dollars come from?

Dollars? You do realize we're in Thailand, right?

[Suradit69]

It beggars belief that most western countries are trying to get the car off the bloody roads , this crowd of donkeys are actually encouraging people to place more on the roads, just go's to show they will use any common denominator to buy votes, come to think of it, I guess the high speed train network will alleviate most problems , well almost

"It beggars belief that most western countries are trying to get the car off the bloody roads ..."

"...just go's to show they will use any common denominator to buy votes..."

You mean like in the US where the government stepped in to rescue the domestic car producers who were on the verge of going belly up? or

'Cash for clunkers' deal boosts US car sales by 450,000 in three weeks

Barack Obama has to end scheme early as result of massive take-up

or

UK electric car funding - another subsidy for the RICH, say MPs

Squeezed middle pay for poshos' plug-in freebie towncars

Edited December 22, 2012 by Suradit69

[NCFC]

One debt collection agency forecasts 20% of loans will go bad so how many months can grandma have the vehicle with the down payment and instalements to collect the rebate and have free motoring? .

Does grandma actually think about the hidden costs of operating a motor vehicle, any motor vehicle?

Fuel,oil, maintenance & insurance & road tax.As a previous poster mentioned, what happens to the cars when paybacks fail? And they will.

As bigbamboo points out "The second hand Vios market should be booming next year"

Not a real exaggeration.

Grandma's a clever old duck who knows the Thai economy is booming and there's plenty of jobs for those who wants one. In one year from now when the rebates are paid out that money could be used to finance the monthly vehicle payments and therefore in one year from now there is unlikely to be a glut of second-hand motors on the market.

Now if you'd have said that at this moment in time you'd have a problem to shift a second-hand vehicle because first time buyers can now afford a new model, then Grandma would probably agree with you. You want second-hand? Buy today!

[lomatopo]

So they have helped people who could already afford to buy a car (and most probably would have bought one anyway) and they have helped a few massive global car companies shift stock quicker than normal. Wonderful eh?! And all that at the cost of billions of baht of tax payers' money.

I think one requirement was that the cars had to be manufactured in Thailand so that would in theory drive local employment? Another requirement was, at least for passenger cars, that they be smaller displacement, which means cleaner and more fuel efficient. Finally, 'incentivizing' new car buyers to buy sooner, rather than later, in theory stimulates the economy. Again, I think it was a win-win-win.

[rixalex]

I think one requirement was that the cars had to be manufactured in Thailand so that would in theory drive local employment? Another requirement was, at least for passenger cars, that they be smaller displacement, which means cleaner and more fuel efficient. Finally, 'incentivizing' new car buyers to buy sooner, rather than later, in theory stimulates the economy. Again, I think it was a win-win-win.

Problem for me though was, as i said, that the scheme didn't open up a new group of customers that didn't previously exist, it merely encouraged an old group of customers to buy sooner than they may of otherwise. Yes there was the stipulation of being a first time buyer, but that could easily be got around by registering the car in the name of someone else in the family. Everyone i know of who has taken advantage of this scheme has done precisely that.

So i predict what the result will be, once you look at the overall and bigger picture of small car sales over three or four years since the scheme, is that there will be a spike in sales this year and next, and then a trailing off. Rather than having sales spread over the course of three or four years, what we will have is the same number of cars being sold, but with a big spike and then a big dip. Do you really think the cost to the tax payer of having that big spike is really going to be worth it? Do you not think that

1) the scheme could have been much better planned to help those who actually need help buying a car, buy one?

2) other schemes, like those ricardo mentions, would have been a much better way to spend tax payers' money?

[tomallison]

That should read 1.1 million Thai people as I believe the scheme is not open to foreigners of course there will be quite a few foreigners who will be footing the bill but not collecting the rebate!

Spot on.

[Thai at Heart]

That should read 1.1 million Thai people as I believe the scheme is not open to foreigners of course there will be quite a few foreigners who will be footing the bill but not collecting the rebate!

Spot on.

Well it would be a bit of a stretch for a foreigner to avail of Thai tax benefits.

But is it really closed to a foreigner working in Thailand?

[sausageandmash]

I'm happy to say that isn't true. The scheme includes expats with work permits. And even if it didn't, you could buy the car in your Thai spouse's name and claim it that way.

That should read 1.1 million Thai people as I believe the scheme is not open to foreigners of course there will be quite a few foreigners who will be footing the bill but not collecting the rebate!

[rixalex]

I'm happy to say that isn't true. The scheme includes expats with work permits.

No it doesn't.

[hgma]

The second hand Vios market should be booming next year.

So is the Debt collectors industry ,whom according to the bangkokpost business news katerns, is set to "service" around an expected 20% of Bad Debt Leasings.

[KarstenBoAndersen]

If a foreigner pay income tax, he/she will get the rebate as well !

As well as we get all other rebates available to Thais also.

But as nearly none of the people who write here pay income tax in THailand, they will not could get anything !!