The Thai Cabinet has reportedly approved the extension of the reduced VAT rate of 7% until 30 September 2016. Early in the year, Thailand had been considering increasing the rate to 8% from 1 October 2015, but later decided to keep the current rate of 7%.

Thailand's standard rate of VAT is 10%, but was reduced to 7% as part of special economic measures taken after the 1997 Asian financial cris…