Wissanu dampens fears over water tax
Says bill won’t affect small-scale farmers
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Kreangam has insisted small-scale farmers will not be levied for water use on their farms, based on the principle of the water resource draft bill being deliberated by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).
He was responding to the growing concerns of farmers who are upset with the bill, which they fear would impose a water tax on them. Some farmers were reportedly planning to step up their resistance against the legislation.
Mr Wissanu said small-scale farmers will not be targeted for the water tax. However, as a matter of principle, those who use excessive resources or damage the environment must bear responsibility in the form of tax, he noted.
“There is no reason to collect water tax from small-scale farmers,” Mr Wissanu said, adding the chairman of the NLA panel deliberating the bill and the NLA’s deputy chairman have made it clear the draft law imposing the tax will not be applied to farmers who do not farm on a commercial scale.
Gen Akanit Muansawad, who chairs the NLA committee vetting the bill, said the legislation needs to be revised to make it clear how the tax would be applied.
The bill, he said, takes aim only at those using natural water resources, such as rivers, canals and creeks, outside of the irrigation zones. This legislation has nothing to do with tap water or groundwater as well as irrigated water.
Gen Akanit insisted only “sizeable” farm operators will be levied, but ministerial regulations will be rolled out to define what exactly constitutes a sizeable farm.
He said the Department of Water Resources’s proposed regulations categorise farmers according to how many rai of farmland and livestock they own, adding no decision on the size of the farms has yet been reached.
The bill sailed through the first reading in the NLA on March 2.
Gen Akanit said public hearings regarding the bill have been conducted in 29 provinces, all of which opposed a water tax on small-scale farmers. Another hearing will be conducted in Songkhla from Oct 17-18.
The bill is likely to be passed in January next year, which will be followed by the enactment of 27 relevant ministerial regulations, the general said, adding it could take some time before the legislation actually comes into force.
Meanwhile, former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij urged the government to explain Section 39 of the bill which concerns money collected from water use in commercial farming.
Currently, small-scale farmers also group themselves as community enterprises and take part in the governmentdriven mega-farm project, according to Mr Korn, the head of the Democrat Party’s policy-making panel.
He also appealed to the government to use water tax drawn from the industrial and service sectors for conservation and the development of community water resources.
Red-shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn lambasted the bill, saying the government lacks economic nous and is therefore finding ways to draw money from people’s pockets.