OPINION

A very long wait

Re: "Keep maps simple", (PostBag, July 7) & "Thap Lan National Park revamp worries official" (BP, July 1).

In a letter published July 7, reader Jaytee Korat asks: "… Why can't the Post include simple maps with articles that refer to areas and places with which many readers may be unfamiliar?" In a letter to the Post on June 10, 2015, I noted: "Maps are wonderful visual aids that help people understand just where things are. Why don't you use them more often?"

Sorry Jaytee, apparently, it's not going to happen.

Re: "Tax concerns valid" (PostBag, July 7).

MP Foscolos tried to enlighten me on expatriates' and retirees' concerns about taxing world income. On the contrary, after numerous inputs into PostBag, my impression is of a mixture of both imaginary and genuine concerns.

Imaginary as in the whining about having to keep evidence of tax paid in one's country to claim relief. The task of record-keeping is innate and the duty of all good taxpayers.

The respectable principle of tax collections is not to tax any income twice. Hence, any tax one pays in another country can be used as a credit (deduction) against Thai tax if world income comes into play in Thailand, which is unlikely to increase the tax burden of expatriates. In some treaties, pensions are also exempted from Thai tax.

The major disadvantage of taxing world income is a change in having to take on additional tasks in tax compliance to make Thailand appear suitable and at par with the Western world.

That is a valid point; one agrees with MP Foscolos and others. One does ask oneself why the government bothers, for appearance's sake, when our neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines are still taxing individuals on a territorial basis.

Also, the weak prospect of our economy when compared with our neighbouring countries, as explained by the central bank governor, means we are not likely to have an annual growth rate of over 3% for the next five years. Time is better spent on improvement than being concerned with our appearance.

However, MP Foscolos's statement that the ill-effects of Thailand in proposing taxation on world income would "have serious economic consequences for Thailand" is exaggerating one's importance too far.

With Thais' overjoyed at the number of tourists reaching nearly 40 million by the end of the year, the huge effects against Thailand, as expected by MP Foscolos, would likely be viewed as a drop in the ocean. That is what one calls whining for the downfall of our country to support one's argument.

The other evening, while watching the F1 qualifying, a screen crawl from TRUE, the leader in sports programming, appeared.

The crawl noted that Aug 1, the BeIn1 channel would be discontinued. They also noted that one could continue to watch never-ending reruns of football matches on their other sports channels when they weren't broadcasting repeats of last year's NBA season.

What I found interesting was that this announcement came during the F1 qualifying for the British Grand Prix, which was to be broadcast on, you guessed it, BeIn1. So, does this mean that, like Nascar a few years ago, there will be no more F1 broadcasts on TRUE Vision?

A little clarification would be appreciated from the largest cable monopoly in Thailand.