Firms to get tax cuts for forest fire donations

PUBLISHED : 30 Mar 2024 at 05:55

Officials detect smoke from a forest fire during an aerial survey in Chiang Mai last month.(Photo supplied/Panumet Tanraksa)

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is seeking the private sector’s cooperation to financially support the ministry’s forest fire operation by offering a lucrative package of reduced taxes in exchange for their assistance.

The ministry and the Board of Investment of Thailand (BoI) on Friday invited private companies to learn about the ministry’s project to combat forest fires, especially in the northern region, the major source of haze pollution.

The project will allow firms to help mitigate the air pollution caused by PM2.5 fine dust by offering financial support to the Department of Forest and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in their efforts to stop forest wildfires.

Jatuporn Buruspat, the ministry’s permanent secretary, said the government is serious about this issue, but due to a very limited budget, it needs support from the private sector.

The ministry and the BoI will offer tax initiatives to any company that donates money to the stop wildfires project, he said.

Firms can donate anywhere between 500,000 baht and 5 million baht from Jan 1 to April 30 each year to help clean the air, Mr Jatuporn said.

They will receive tax reductions of up to 200% from the amount of money they donate to the project, he noted.

That money will be spent on purchasing fire-fighting tools, training courses for firefighters and setting up forest fire-monitoring points, Mr Jatuporn added. “We hope the project will bear fruit in the next three years.”

“We have tried our best to deal with the PM2.5 pollution by making strong efforts to stop hotspots in the country. But it is not actually the best result because we still have problems with haze from hotspots in neighbouring countries,” he said. “At least we do our best to combat air pollution in our own territory.”

Regarding the haze pollution, he said the hotspots are still widely found in Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces.

The ministry is working to reduce these before next month’s Songkran festival.

Suthiket Thatpitak-Kul, the BoI’s deputy secretary-general, said the BoI has a clear policy to support investment for a better and cleaner environment. In 2007, it offered a special tax incentive for entrepreneurs who needed to invest in cleaner technology to reduce the pollution problem in Rayong province

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