Thailand BOI Application Process: Which Projects Qualify, How to Apply, and What Happens After Approval

In short

A BOI application runs on a statutory timeline: submit the application together with the investment project to the BOI Office under Section 17 → the Board reviews the project's economic and technological appropriateness and its environmental measures under Section 18 and Section 19 → the applicant must be notified within 15 days of the resolution and must reply in writing accepting the promotion within 1 month (Section 21) → within 6 months of acceptance the applicant reports progress on commencing the project, and once the Secretary-General considers the applicant able to carry out the project, the promotion certificate is issued (Section 22). Approval is not the finish line: the conditions on the certificate must be complied with on an ongoing basis, and violations can lead to revocation of benefits and retroactive tax collection (Section 54, Section 55).

Many investors' picture of the BOI stops at “what incentives are on offer”, but what actually decides success is usually operational: whether the project qualifies, not missing the procedural deadlines, and not tripping over post-approval conditions. This article walks through the entire application process in the section order of the Investment Promotion Act B.E. 2520. For the incentives themselves — tax exemptions, land, foreign personnel — see our separate overview of BOI investment promotion incentives; this article does not repeat them.

1. Which Projects Qualify? (Sections 16, 18, 19)

Not every business can apply for BOI promotion. Section 16 provides that an undertaking eligible for investment promotion must be one that is important and beneficial to the economic, social, and security aspects of the country, including undertakings that use capital, labour, or services at a high rate, or that use agricultural products or natural resources as raw materials, and which the Board deems not yet to exist in Thailand, to exist insufficiently, or to use a production process that is not yet modern. Which specific industries, and at what sizes, may apply is determined by Board announcement; the Board may also set conditions for granting promotion and may amend, supplement, or repeal them at any time, and for undertakings that no longer need promotion it may announce a temporary or permanent cessation of promotion. In other words, the list of promotable business categories is dynamic — before applying you must check the announcements currently in force. Our firm can help confirm whether your business falls within a currently promotable category.

The project itself must also pass two substantive review tests:

Economic and technological appropriateness (Section 18): the Board's review considers six factors — (1) the number of existing producers and production capacity in the Kingdom, compared against estimated demand and the size of the capacity to be promoted or added; (2) the opportunity for the business to expand the market for its products and support domestic production; (3) the quantity and rate of utilization of domestic resources such as capital, raw materials, and labour; (4) the amount of foreign currency that will be saved, reserved, or brought into the country; (5) the suitability of the production process; (6) other criteria the Board deems necessary and appropriate.
Environmental protection measures (Section 19): the project must have appropriate measures to prevent and control harm to environmental quality.

2. The Application Process: From Filing to Certificate

Submit the Application Section 17

File the promotion application with the BOI Office according to the criteria, procedures, and forms determined by the Secretary-General, together with the investment project for which promotion is requested. A promoted person must be a company, foundation, or cooperative established under the law — but the Act expressly allows the application to be filed before the company is established, following the method prescribed by the Secretary-General.

Review and Acceptance Sections 18, 19, 21

The Board deliberates against the criteria in Sections 18 and 19. Once the Board resolves to grant promotion, the Office must notify the applicant within 15 days of the date of the resolution, together with the conditions established by the Board; if the applicant accepts, a written reply must be submitted within 1 month of receiving the notification. Where there is due cause, the Secretary-General may grant extensions — at most 3 times, each not exceeding 1 month.

Commencement Report and Certificate Issuance Sections 22, 23

After accepting promotion, the applicant must report progress on commencing the project to the Office, in the form prescribed by the Secretary-General, within 6 months; where there is due cause this may be extended at most 3 times, each not exceeding 4 months, with the Secretary-General reporting to the Board on every extension. When the Secretary-General considers that the applicant is able to carry out the promoted project, the promotion certificate shall be issued without delay. The certificate is in the form prescribed by the Board and signed by the Secretary-General; any subsequent amendment of the certificate requires a Board resolution (Section 23).

3. What Application Documents Do You Need?

At the statutory level, Section 17 sets out only the framework: a promotion application plus the investment project, filed according to the criteria, procedures, and forms determined by the Secretary-General. In practice, the BOI requires application forms and supporting documents by business category (such as the project's investment and business plan, and information on the company or company-to-be); the exact checklist is subject to the BOI's current official requirements — our firm can help confirm the applicable category and prepare the full package. In our experience, document quality directly shapes how the Section 18 review goes: capacity projections, resource utilization, and foreign-currency effects are precisely the Board's statutory considerations, and the application should be organized as a case built around those six criteria.

4. Post-Approval Obligations: Conditions on the Promotion Certificate (Sections 20, 40, 41)

BOI approval is never “unconditional”. Section 20 provides that when granting promotion, the Board shall establish in the promotion certificate one or more conditions the promoted person must comply with, covering:

Capital and shareholders: the amount of capital and the source of capital; the nationality and number of shareholders;
Size of the business: the type of product or service, the production process, and production capacity;
Personnel: the nationality and number of workers, skilled workers, and experts; training and utilization of labour; reports on the work of foreign skilled workers and experts in training Thai nationals to acquire knowledge and skills;
Environment: prevention and control of harm to environmental quality;
Deadlines: the period within which implementation of the promoted project must commence, machinery must be ordered, machinery must be brought into Thailand, and machinery must be sent out after use is completed, together with extensions of those periods; the date of commencement of operations;
Reporting and standards: reporting work performance pursuant to the project and operations; compliance of products with standards established by the Board or government authorities; arrangements for the sale of products or the provision of services;
Security: providing the Office with cash, a bank guarantee, Thai government bonds, or other security accepted by the Board, as a guarantee of compliance with the conditions; and other matters concerning the granting, use, and supervision of rights and benefits.

Two further long-term constraints apply. Within the period determined by the Board (not less than 5 years and not more than 15 years), the promoted person may not use machinery that received import-duty exemption or reduction for purposes other than the promoted business or consent to another person using it, and may not relocate the factory or place of business outside the location specified in the certificate (Section 40). If it becomes necessary to mortgage, sell, transfer, or lease the machinery, or to relocate, prior permission from the Board is required, granted in writing or by amending the promotion certificate (Section 41). And where a promoted person is unable to comply with the certificate's conditions on the importation of machinery, the Board — if it deems there is just cause — is empowered to amend those conditions (Section 39).

5. Consequences of Breaching Conditions: Revocation and Tax Clawback (Sections 54, 55, 55/1)

This is the most underestimated part of the BOI regime. Section 54 provides that where a promoted person violates or fails to comply with the conditions determined by the Board, the Board has the authority to order revocation of the rights and benefits granted, in whole or in part; if the Board considers the violation not deliberate, it may first have the Office send a written warning setting a deadline to rectify — and if the deadline passes without rectification and without reasonable cause, revocation follows.

The economic consequences of revocation are severe:

Import/export duty benefits revoked (Section 55): the promoted person is deemed never to have received the tax exemption or reduction, and must pay taxes based on the condition of the goods and the tax rates in effect on the date of importation or exportation; where revocation is partial, tax is paid on the revoked portion. The promoted person must notify Customs and request to pay within 1 month of knowing of the revocation order, and must pay in full within 1 month of receiving notice of the tax amount; late payment attracts a surcharge of 1% per month of the tax due (without compounding) for at most 3 months; failing that, the goods are treated as imported or exported with tax evaded, and customs law applies directly.
Corporate income tax benefits revoked (Section 55/1): the promoted person is deemed to lose the exemption or reduction for the revoked accounting period, and taxation reverts to the Revenue Code; the Board may also order revocation with retroactive effect to the accounting period in which the conditions were breached. The promoted person must file and pay the tax to the Revenue Department within 1 month of knowing of the revocation order; late payment attracts a surcharge under the Revenue Code. The only cushion: the revocation order does not affect dividends from the promoted business that have already been distributed.

⚠️ Approval Is Only the Start of Compliance

Every condition on the promotion certificate — commencement deadlines, machinery import deadlines, capacity, reporting obligations — is a commitment with legal consequences. Once benefits are revoked, back taxes are computed as if the exemption had never existed, plus surcharges, and years of accumulated benefits can turn into a large one-off tax liability. A BOI company should keep a condition ledger and track every deadline and reporting milestone item by item.

6. What SLF Can Do for You

SLF provides end-to-end BOI application services for investors: preliminary assessment (checking against the current announcements whether your business category is promotable, and pre-assessing the project's prospects against the six criteria of Section 18), application preparation (drafting the application and investment project documents, including structuring a pre-incorporation application), process follow-up (handling queries and clarifications, and managing the Section 21 acceptance deadline and the Section 22 commencement-report deadline), and post-approval compliance (a certificate-condition ledger, the various reports and extension requests, and condition amendments and Section 41 permission applications). The promotable business categories and the specific extent of each incentive are determined by Board announcement, and the official requirements currently in force prevail — our firm can help confirm. Contact us to assess your project.

FAQ

Can I apply for BOI promotion before my company is registered?

Yes. Section 17 of the Investment Promotion Act requires a promoted person to be a company, foundation, or cooperative established under the law, but the same section expressly allows a promotion application to be filed before the company is established, according to the criteria, procedures, and forms determined by the Secretary-General, with establishment completed after approval.

After BOI approval, how long do I have to reply, and how soon is the promotion certificate issued?

Under Section 21, after the Board's resolution the Office must notify the applicant, together with the attached conditions, within 15 days, and the applicant must reply in writing accepting the promotion within 1 month of receiving the notification (extendable at most 3 times, 1 month each). Under Section 22, within 6 months of acceptance the applicant must report progress on commencing the project (extendable at most 3 times, 4 months each), and once the Secretary-General considers the applicant able to carry out the project, the promotion certificate is issued.

What are the consequences of breaching BOI conditions?

Under Section 54, the Board may revoke the rights and benefits in whole or in part; where the violation is not deliberate, a written warning with a deadline to rectify may be issued first. If import/export duty benefits are revoked, under Section 55 the promoted person is deemed never to have received the exemption and must pay tax at the rates in effect on the date of importation, with a surcharge of 1% per month for late payment for at most 3 months, after which the goods are treated as tax-evaded and customs law applies. If corporate income tax benefits are revoked, under Section 55/1 taxation reverts to the Revenue Code and the tax must be paid back, and revocation may be made retroactive to the accounting period in which the conditions were breached.

If a BOI company merges or transfers its business, does the promotion certificate remain valid?

Under Section 56, if a promoted person ceases business, merges with another person, or transfers the business, the promotion certificate remains valid for at most 3 more months from that date; the merged entity or the transferee wishing to continue the promoted business must submit a new promotion application within that period, and if the Board considers it appropriate, a new certificate is issued within the scope of the rights the original promoted person still retained — otherwise all rights and benefits are revoked.