BANGKOK, Jan 8 – The Thai government’s tax incentives for first time car buyers which spurred auto sales last year is not the only cause of traffic congestion in Bangkok, according to a senior Transport Ministry official.
Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt said construction at a number of locations to expand Bangkok’s mass transit system and bottlenecks on many roads are also in part to blame for the snarled traffic.
He was referring to increasing complaints on the worsening traffic situation in the capital and some peoples’ finger-pointing at the government’s “first-car scheme.”
He said 274,598 newly-purchased vehicles under the first-car scheme were registered between September 10, 2011 and October 31 last year, representing 59.13 per cent of the total new cars in Bangkok.
A total of 464,394 new cars were registered, an average of 1,190 cars a day, he reported, adding that 366,109 were sedans and 98,285 were pick-up trucks.
