News from Thailand – August 10, 2012

Thailand has won his second Olympic medal and the third is on the way. Chanatip Sonkham won bronze in the 49 kilo class in women's teakwondo. Boxer Kaew Pongprayoon is already certain of bronze and has a chance to win silver or gold.

Kaew, who will be boxing in the flyweight semi-final tonight (Thai time), will compete in the Olympics for the first time. My 12-year wait for an Olympic medal is over. But my mission is not yet complete; my target is to win gold for all Thais.'

If he succeeds, he will be at least 100 million baht richer. Thailand Boxing Association sponsors already account for 50 million baht. The association's president is going to put in a good word for him with the military when he wins gold. He will nominate him for an appointment as petty officer.

Update: Kaew won the semi-final on Friday.

– The Criminal Court yesterday made no decision on the withdrawal of bail for 24 red shirt leaders or red shirts, including the high-profile red shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan. However, there are only 19 left, because five enjoy immunity as members of parliament, as long as parliament is in session until November.

The case will be discussed again on August 22. The court decided to postpone at the request of Yossawaris Chuklom. He had asked to investigate a VCD, submitted as evidence by an opposition MP. Could it have been tampered with, he wondered. It is no coincidence that he struggles, because he has called during red shirt meetings to harass the judges of the Constitutional Court by telephone. That call prompted the Court to ask for his bail to be withdrawn. Yossawaris is expected to be one of the few sent back to prison.

The defendant red shirts received support from just under a thousand supporters outside the courthouse. There were no disturbances.

– Mud is thrown at Minister Plodprasop Surasawadi, formerly Director General of the Royal Forest Department. In that capacity, Plodprasop would have given permission for the construction of Ban Talaymok holiday park in Thap Lan National Park, which was recently razed to the ground for 60 percent.

The owners claim to have obtained a permit to lease the land in 2003. They have filed a lawsuit against the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to prevent further demolition. In a previous criminal case, the judge ordered the demolition of the holiday park because it was built illegally, but civil proceedings are still pending against the owners about compensation for ecological damage.

Plodprasop plays the murdered innocence. “I don't understand why people listen to the culprit and try to blame me. I was the first official to order the arrest of owners of illegally built holiday parks.' But the minister admits that he advised the owners to transfer their buildings to the Forest Department to prevent them from being demolished.

Talaymok did so in August 2002. A year later, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation took over supervision of the national park from the Forest Department. She did nothing against the holiday park, because the buildings belonged to the Forest Department. Apparently the current leadership thinks otherwise and so does the judge.

– How exactly is the 350 billion baht for water management projects spent? Those who want to know can visit an exhibition at the end of this month, where the plans will be presented. With this initiative, the government is responding to criticism about the lack of information, including from the National Anti-Corruption Commission. There will also be a website with details, on which progress will also be tracked. Not a baht of the 350 billion has yet been spent. The tendering procedure will certainly take until the end of January 2013. Two controversial projects are the construction of the Mae Wong dam and Kaeng Sua Ten dam.

– Vice Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprasa is visiting the South today. In his position as head of the new command center in Bangkok, recently established by the government, he will talk to people in the field to hear their ideas about curbing the violence.

The air force will carry out reconnaissance flights over the area with a twin-engine DA-42 aircraft equipped with real-time cameras, which can also take beautiful pictures at night. Surveillance is also carried out with AU-23 aircraft.

Yesterday, students of a school in Sungai Padi (Narathiwat) spotted a suspicious object. And indeed, it turned out to be a bomb. An explosives disposal squad detonated the bomb. There were no injuries. Only the granite table under which the bomb was hidden was destroyed.

In the Rue So district, 60 police and soldiers raided 5 locations in 2 tambons. Six people were detained for questioning. A rifle, three pistols, ammunition and 75 bags of '4×100', a narcotic, were seized.

– It is doom and gloom with the rubber price. Not only Thailand, but also Malaysia and Indonesia are affected by the economic crisis in the eurozone. Rubber is now sold in the far south for 75 baht per kilo and 2 baht more elsewhere.

In July, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture promised farmers a price of 100 baht per kilo and Nattawut Saikuar was allowed to explain this in parliament yesterday, because the cabinet has earmarked 15 billion baht to support the price. Nattawut had little more to say to that than to refer to Europe and sigh: 'The problem cannot be solved quickly. We need more time to solve it.'

– The Suan Sanuk Municipal School in Khon Kaen had to close its doors yesterday after five students were diagnosed with foot and mouth disease. The school remains closed today.

– The producer and director of the banned film Shakespeare Must Die are going to look higher. They have gone to the Administrative Court to get the ban from the Film Censorship Board and the National Board of Film overturned. Some think that the film mocks Thaksin. The production costs amounted to 7,3 million baht and the makers want to be compensated for this if the ban remains in force.

– Tax increases are not necessary, because the tax revenue can increase significantly if the problem of non-payment is solved, says Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong (Finance). According to him, the situation in Thailand is not comparable to that in other countries, where more efficient tax systems exist. Those countries can only increase tax revenues by raising taxes.

Kittiratt refers to his time as president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Many companies made modest profits prior to going public, but as a public company, profits jumped, partly because their books had to comply with market rules.

The minister says he does not intend to grant amnesty to tax evaders. "There is little guarantee that even after an amnesty, companies and individuals will change their behavior and accurately pay the taxes they are supposed to pay." Kittiratt does expect that the reduction in corporate tax from 30 to 23 percent this year and to 20 percent next year will encourage more companies to pay taxes, so that tax revenues will increase in the long term.

The Tax and Customs Administration has high expectations of two improvements in the VAT payment. It concerns new technology and methods to provide better insight into transactions in the supply chain. The service expects that these improvements will ensure that the country's budget is balanced within a few years. Since Thailand's financial crisis in 1997, every country's budget has closed with a deficit. This fiscal year, which ends September 30, is the deficit 3,5 percent of gross domestic product or 400 billion baht. A deficit of 2,4 percent or 300 billion baht is expected for next year.

– Labour-intensive companies have started to invest in Cambodia and they are also looking at Myanmar with a slanted eye. This says Thavorn Chalassathien, deputy secretary general of the Federation of Thai Industries. He calls on the government to strengthen diplomatic ties with the other ASEAN countries so that those companies can benefit.

In order to survive, according to Thavorn, it is a must for labour-intensive companies to move to low-wage countries if they want to be able to compete for the next three years. Six groups of fashion and lifestyle companies formed a cluster a few weeks ago to look at investment opportunities abroad. A possible candidate is Indonesia, where wages are lower than in Thailand.

– First Solar Inc, based in Thailand for a year, has signed contracts with five solar farms, good for 12,2 megawatts. The Arizona company, founded in 1990, produces solar panels with cadmium telluride (CdTe) as a semiconductor. As a result, it can produce the panels more cheaply than companies that make panels with crystalline silicon. And it has reduced production costs to $1 per watt. The company has high expectations of Thailand given the interest in sustainable energy. First Solar is also in talks with another four potential solar farms.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.

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