Thai economy: Money for farmers, liquidity for SMEs economic priorities

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ECONOMY
Money for farmers, liquidity for SMEs economic priorities
Erich Parpart
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The economic chief of the National Council for Peace and Order yesterday promised to help farmers get their dues under the rice-pledging scheme and assured easy access to liquidity for small and medium-sized enterprises as its priorities.

Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong, who is also the NCPO's economic chief, addressed a meeting with Finance Ministry officers and state-enterprise employees at the ministry yesterday. He outlined a three-stage economic plan dealing with urgent issues, short-term and long-term.

"We will maintain peace to win over the confidence of investors and consumers while finding ways to stimulate the economy at the same time. Urgent issues will be dealt with first and a complete road map will be presented to the public by next week," he said.

Among the urgent issues, the NCPO has assigned the Finance Ministry to secure Bt92 billion in funding to repay farmers who are owed under the rice-pledging scheme through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.

'Boost to GDP'

The NCPO and Finance Ministry permanent secretary Rungson Sriworasat believe the overdue rice-pledging payments will boost gross domestic product by 0.2 per cent through increased spending by farmers. The NCPO will also speed up the implementation of the fiscal 2015 budget to meet the schedule by October.

Regarding value-added tax, which is currently at 7 per cent, Rungson said the ministry had proposed an extension of the rate for one more year before raising it. This is now under the consideration of the NCPO. The junta has instructed relevant agencies to speed up state spending and said projects that could not be completed under the 2014 budget could be considered for the 2015 budget.

Other urgent issues include helping SMEs by providing easier access to cash. The NCPO will instruct the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation to guarantee SME loans without collateral upto a total of Bt165 billion.

In the short term, the NCPO plans to continue with part of the water-management and infrastructure plans, but it will select the most urgent ones such as flood prevention and double-tracking railways. It will only consider projects that can be approved within the budgetary period, and ones that will not create fiscal strain.

As for long-term development, the NCPO has instructed financial agencies to do their "homework" and present their plans to the junta by Saturday.


-- The Nation 2014-05-27

[chotthee]

Dear Prayuth the great general.

Please don't forget to lower the price of petrol to 18 Baht/ltr.

I know you can do it.

Please help the poor people of Thailand.

[Gunna]

Dear Prayuth the great general.

Please don't forget to lower the price of petrol to 18 Baht/ltr.

I know you can do it.

Please help the poor people of Thailand.

I thought if you were poor you couldn't afford anything that runs on petrol.

[JohnnyJazz]

It doesn't make any sense. First there was no money for this scheme then it was labelled as "vote buying" populist policies, a waste of tax payer money.

How a rational mind can explain that, I don't know

[Thai at Heart]

Dear Prayuth the great general.

Please don't forget to lower the price of petrol to 18 Baht/ltr.

I know you can do it.

Please help the poor people of Thailand.

How strong.does the baht have to get to get to 18 per litre. Should be fun to watch

[tonbridgebrit]

Dear Prayuth the great general.

Please don't forget to lower the price of petrol to 18 Baht/ltr.

I know you can do it.

Please help the poor people of Thailand.

Mt Chotthee, I'm not sure if the general can actually do this or not. But I certainly do sincerely cheer on your idea !

[Thai at Heart]

Dear Prayuth the great general.

Please don't forget to lower the price of petrol to 18 Baht/ltr.

I know you can do it.

Please help the poor people of Thailand.

Mt Chotthee, I'm not sure if the general can actually do this or not. But I certainly do sincerely cheer on your idea !

Baht would have to be about 20 to the USD. Roll on

[rebelplatoon]

Seems like a sound outlook

[personchester]

Dear Prayuth the great general.

Please don't forget to lower the price of petrol to 18 Baht/ltr.

I know you can do it.

Please help the poor people of Thailand.

The junta administration might do the opposite, that is to say not to reduce the petrol price but increase the price in order to reduce the massive road traffic in Thailand's cities.

Due to increased petrol prices some people have to cut down some of their daily car driving, with reduced cars traffic will become less problematic and saver.

[issanaus]

The only danger in that statement is encouraging state authorities to try and spend this years budget allocations.

[Chris Lawrence]

Can I get a SME without collateral?

This water management program; is it the one that was approved back in 2011 to spend 350 billion baht? Which is the one that Abhisit took his eye off the ball when Prime Minister and left it to the Mayor of Bangkok who was swayed by the need to keep business going then have flood mitigation program developed? Which was a result from a report compiled by Thai's leading expert in 2007? Has everyone had a bite at this cherry?

All the plans for other works should be in place? Just the need for some white out to change the names?

There are about 17-20 offshore banks waiting to get into Thailand. Wonder if these plans have been put on hold?

Although there is that need to spend to stimulate the economy, the need to control spending/program implementation so as not to have the schemes abused/manipulated.