Equity of Taxation for Industrial Development: A Case Study of Investment Incentives and Taxes in the Eastern Economic Corridor

Abstract

             The aims of this research were to study unfairness in taxation and propose guidelines for equity of taxation related to investment promotional privileges in the Eastern Economic Corridor. The research design was a qualitative research method of document reviews and in-depth interviews with stakeholders or related groups of people from the public, private, and people sectors as key informants selected by the purposive sampling technique. The results revealed that the investment promotional privileges of industrial development in the Eastern Economic Corridor have caused of unfairness in taxation among people inside the project area who have gained more privileges than those outside the project area in 2 major issues including tax-based privileges and non-tax benefits. The proposed guidelines for equity of taxation and investment promotional privileges in the Eastern Economic Corridor include tax system reform, investment promotional system, improving conditions of investment promotional privileges, developing participatory policy-making and government auditing, creating measures and evaluation of privileges, improving key performance indicators for investment promotion, reviewing a framework to assess how Thailand policies compare to those of neighboring countries, and establishing the semi-autonomous revenue agency for effective, independent, and fair tax administration as well as tax transparency and performance.