The Treasury Department seeks to complete the price appraisals for each individual land plot by the end of next year in order to facilitate the implementation of the land and building tax.

The department plans to finish appraising another 5 million land plots this year, and the remaining 12 million plots by the end of 2017, said general director Chakkrit Parapantakul.

It has already finished individual appraisals of 13.4 million land plots.

The department has changed the protocol for land appraisals, focusing on individual land lots rather than blocks to pave the way for the enforcement of the land and building tax law.

The new property tax, which won the cabinet's approval yesterday, will replace the local development tax and house and land tax, which have been criticised as regressive because they are based on outdated appraisal prices and have many waivers.

The land and building tax is part of government efforts to boost asset-based tax income so as to reduce economic inequality, improve land distribution and increase the use of land nationwide. At present, taxes on assets account for less than 5% of the Thai government's tax revenue.

Moreover, the new tax will help lower the government's fiscal burden in subsidising local administrative organisations.

To speed up the land appraisal process under the new rubric, the Treasury Department will allocate 800 million baht to hire more employees and organise the information, said Mr Chakkrit.

The department has categorised appraisals for each land plot into five types of property -- single-detached houses, townhouses, commercial buildings, shop houses and other buildings such as warehouses.

In line with the new property tax, appraisals of homes will be calculated at the same level regardless of how well they have been maintained, he said.

Land appraisals will be done on a plot-by-plot basis Mr Chakkrit said, adding that land located in housing estates is always priced higher than in non-housing estates, as the former have better basic infrastructure.