Finance Minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala has announced that the government has four major policies to push Thailand towards prosperity in the future.
Speaking in a special lecture on Monday organized by the Thailand Management Association, the minister elaborated that the government is duty bound to facilitate business operations of the private sector and help those businesses spearhead competitions in the global market.
Mr Thirachai announced that the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, has four main strategies to facilitate business operations.
The first one is to create political stability and enhance unity in the civil sector.
The second policy is to create economic stability.
The third policy is to facilitate business operations by reducing their capital costs and improve labour skills.
The final one is to suppress corruption practices. However, after delivering his special lecture, the minister refused to give an interview to the press on the impact of the reduction of oil fund collections as he told reporters that he would speak about this at the Ministry of Finance later on.
via Finance minister: Govt pushing nation to prosperity : National News Bureau of Thailand.
Meanwhile, Thai Newpaper are questioning the 300 baht wage policy, like Matichon
Over 15 million eligible voters, ranging the gamut of Thai society, last month cast their ballots in favor of the Pheu Thai Party, granting the new government leaders an ironclad mandate in Parliament to do as they please. Though some may have voted due to an allegiance to the party and its ties to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, there are undoubtedly those that placed their faith in Pheu Thai believing that it would make good on its very enticing assurances. Runners in the party avoided using the term ‘promise’ on the campaign trail as it is actually banned by election law, but were full ready to toss out the word ‘assurance’ at every opportune moment.
Safely in power now, however, it has been revealed that the ‘assurances’ that filled the voting public with so much hope and optimism were mere ‘campaign techniques’ that should not have been attached to any certainty.
One such assurance that has been exposed to be a completely lip-said proclamation is that of the minimum wage hike to 300 baht per day. Its not that the project has been scrapped, but rather that the word ‘wage’ has been replaced with ‘income’.
The reason Pheu Thai prefers the slight change in wording is because it allows them a vast amount of wiggle room in implementing what was assured during the campaign; for it is the word ‘wage’ that is used in the nation’s Labor Act when specifying a set rate of money to be paid by an employer to an employee upon fulfilling the employee’s duty. A ‘minimum wage’ of course is the least amount an employer can employ a laborer as set by the state.
The word ‘income’, meanwhile, is defined as benefits derived from employment which may be monetary, but can also be given in the form of shelter, food, transport and even uniforms. Income includes wage, but employers are not compelled by law to furnish their employees with any further ‘income’ if not needed.
The switch up has had employers cheering after a tense month of fearing that they would have to up minimum wages, which in some areas are below 200 baht, to the proposed 300 baht. Widening the smile on their faces is another government plan to reduce corporate tax from 30 percent to 23 percent, an act the administration says was conceptualized to assist employers pay the increased minimum wage, which is no longer compulsory.
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