Thailand land price appraiser needed

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Thailand land price appraiser needed 
Bangkok Post: 16 Sep 2010
Neutral land price appraiser needed

The Treasury Department wants to establish an independent organisation to help assess land prices used as a benchmark to collect future land and building taxes.

Thevan Vichitakul, the department's director-general, said the proposed land and building tax requires the department to set valuation prices for an estimated 30 million land plots nationwide.

He said the department had 200 land assessors, a number insufficient to complete the task.

The department had previously suggested adding another 1,500 staff to help meet the added workload that would come under the proposed law. But the Civil Service Commission has been reluctant to approve the application under policies aimed at containing costs.

The Treasury Department, which manages public land on behalf of the government, has argued that delays in completing a by-plot assessment would result in lost revenues for more than 7,000 local administrations that are to benefit from the proposed tax.

Establishing an independent organisation outside of the civil service framework to help meet the valuation requirements set out under the land and building tax law is one option to help break the deadlock.

The Treasury Department to date has completed assessments for some 11 million land plots, primarily in Bangkok and urban areas. For many rural areas, assessments in the past have been done on a block basis, a system incompatible with the requirements of the new law.

Mr Thevan said 2% of the revenues raised from the land and building tax could be set aside to help meet operating costs of the new organisation. The proposed tax law, which will impose a fee based on the value of land and property on all landowners each year, has already passed cabinet approval and is now under review by the Council of State prior to going before Parliament.

Meanwhile, Mr Thevan added that the Treasury Department expected to sign leases for 56,000 rai of public land nationwide for poor farmers to use by the end of the year.

The programme, part of the strategy to assist the poor and reduce income disparity nationwide, offers farmers the use of public land for planting crops at just 20 to 50 baht per rai per year.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/196501/neutral-land-price-appraiser-needed