News from Thailand – September 12, 2013
Let me start today with a correction. Pracha Maleenont who was sentenced to 12 years in prison (see News from Thailand yesterday) was not interior minister, but secretary of state. My mistake. He was minister of Tourism and Sport, but that was later.
The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) is currently looking into confiscating Pracha's assets plus that of the fire chief who was given 10 years. It is known how much Pracha amounts to, because ministers are obliged to provide Amlo with a statement of their assets and liabilities.
Pracha had 2007 million baht in his bank account in 218,1; 148,6 million baht in investments, 82 plots of land worth 154,9 million baht and 1 million shares worth 100 million baht. He was a board member of 20 companies. His liabilities amounted to 3,72 billion baht. Pracha's wife had a fortune of 55,9 million baht and no debts. Pracha co-founded TVB Three Network in 1996. This company is part owned by TVB (Overseas) Co, a company based in the tax haven of Bermuda.
Pracha and the former Bangkok fire chief were convicted on Tuesday by the Supreme Court's Holders of Political Positions Department of corruption in the procurement of firefighting equipment for the Bangkok municipality. Pracha reportedly fled abroad and the fire chief also failed to show up when the verdict was read on Tuesday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet received a request to revoke Pracha's passport or to track him down.
Pichai Kriangwattanasiri, director of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department of the Bangkok municipality, said the municipality could not do anything with the purchased fire trucks and fire boats while the case was pending before the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva. The 315 cars have been on the quay of the port of Laem Chabang since 2006 and the boats are in a shed in Nonthaburi. As far as Pichai knows, they are in good condition, although 'other parts' (?) have deteriorated. When the municipality starts using the equipment, repair will cost millions of baht, Pichai said. A source at the council's legal department believes Tuesday's verdict will benefit the council in a number of legal proceedings in which it is embroiled.
– The price of eggs (not the eggs themselves) will be frozen at 3,5 baht for three weeks. The Commerce Department made this decision in response to yesterday's protest, when 50 demonstrators protested against price increases in front of the ministry. For example, the price of LPG has been rising by XNUMX satang (half a baht) every month since this month.
The price measure was announced after a meeting between the Secretary of State for Trade and egg producers (this probably does not mean chickens). Three weeks is considered sufficient; it is expected that the supply, which has now collapsed, will come to an end after that. According to producers in Phichit, the supply has fallen because the chickens are laying fewer eggs due to the 'unusual' weather.
In addition to the price measure, the ministry is responding to the protest with another measure. Blue Flag will sell 30 eggs for 99 baht, which equates to a 20 baht discount. Blue Flag is a distribution channel with a number of daily necessities for sale at a reduced price.
– Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok does not intend to sign an agreement with the rubber farmers. A group of farmers demanded from the minister on Tuesday that he confirm in black and white that the farmers receive 2.520 baht per rai. [Earlier the newspaper wrote that they demanded confirmation of 90 baht per kilo unsmoked rubber sheets.] If the minister does not sign by Friday at the latest, there will be a demonstration on Saturday.
Amnuay Yutitham, leader of farmers' protests in 16 provinces, said the subsidy should go not only to plantation owners, but also to farmers who do not own the land. The government must also promise not to prosecute protest leaders and demonstrators over the roadblocks.
The proposal to appease farmers with the 2.520 baht subsidy (a doubling of an earlier commitment) was devised by the National Rubber Policy Committee and confirmed by the cabinet on Tuesday. Pracha says Thawach Boonfueang, deputy secretary to the prime minister, will meet the protesters for negotiations on Saturday morning. The government is not complying with the demand for non-prosecution, Pracha said. According to a spokesman for the Prime Minister's office, three committees have been formed to deal with the protests.
The rubber farmers are still divided. At a meeting Tuesday of representatives from fourteen southern provinces, half voted for and half against the government's subsidy offer. The chairman cast a decisive vote: he voted in favor and protest leader Santhat Dechkerd from Bang Saphan (Prachuap Khiri Khan) does not like that. In his district, farmers are fighting for price intervention, not for a subsidy.
Farmers in Surat Thani are also divided, but have decided to suspend protests for XNUMX days to allow the government to deliver on its promise.
– The former yellow shirt leaders Sondhi Limthongkul and Chamlong Srimuang still refuse to participate in Prime Minister Yingluck's reconciliation forum (which has met once so far). Prawase Wasi, who is always referred to in the newspaper as a 'respected social critic', will join us.
Sondhi and Chamlong were visited yesterday by ex-Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa, coordinator of the reconciliation forum. But his attempt to persuade them to join failed. The talk was broadcast on the satellite TV channel ASTV.
According to Chamlong, a reconciliation forum is not necessary at all, because the government can simply solve the conflict when it stops causing it. He was referring to the amnesty proposal, the proposal to borrow 2,2 trillion baht for infrastructure works and the proposals to amend the constitution.
Sondhi accused Banharn of letting the government abuse him as a pawn, which Banharn in turn denied. He said the amnesty proposal is not aimed at helping Thaksin. Later yesterday, Banharn met Prawase.
– The Expressway Authority of Thailand (EAT) will deploy more staff to receive complaints about the Easy Pass and to open the barriers of the toll gates. Some 21.000 to 28.000 owners of the electronic card have problems because their card is refused or because there is an incorrect credit on it. EAT promises that the problems will be solved by the end of this month.
- It's a bit like handclapping. During her visit to Italy, Prime Minister Yingluck asked the Italian Prime Minister for support in the negotiations on the EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreement and promised that Thailand is ready to support Italy in the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit in 2014 and Italy's offer to 2015 to organize the Expo.
During her visit, the Prime Minister also paid special attention to the Italian fashion industry, an industry that Thai silk and cotton producers and designers have difficulty accessing.
– The application of the Network of Volunteer Citizens to Protect the Three Institutions to rule on the legality of the proposals to amend the constitution has been partially rejected by the Constitutional Court and has not been considered for the rest. According to the network, the proposals violate two articles of the constitution. Conflicts with Article 68 regarding acts that threaten the constitutional monarchy were considered unfounded by the Court. The Court did not consider the other article.
– The immigration service will ask 1.700 Rohingya, who are being held in detention centers across the country, if they are willing to return to Rakhine in Myanmar. It appears that Malaysia does not want to take them in and they do not want to stay in Thailand, said Panu Kerdlarppol, head of the Immigration Bureau.
Last week, Rohingya rioted in a center in Nong Khai. They demanded to be released and sent to a third country. According to Panu, some would like to return to Rakhine. About the proposal to set up a refugee camp for the Rohingya, he said succinctly: Impossible.
– Five plainclothes officers and a member of the Provincial Council were murdered in cold blood in Thung Yangdaeng (Pattani) yesterday. The officers were in a pickup truck that was followed by insurgents. They were shot dead after the truck stopped and they tried to take cover. The agents belonged to a unit investigating oil smuggling. The Member of Parliament was later shot dead when he was on his way home. It is known that the insurgents in the South have connections to the drug trade and the smuggling of oil and other goods.
– Waste processing companies will have to pay for cleaning up illegally dumped waste. The Industrial Works Department will set up a fund that will be fed by contributions from the companies and from which the clean-up work can be paid. No decision has yet been made on the amount of the contribution.
– Oil and gas giant PTT Plc yesterday defended itself against allegations that it sells LPG for 17,3 baht per kilo to the petrochemical industry, while households have to pay 18,1 baht [to be added 50 satang every month this year]. Since the end of last month, a group led by Senator Rosana Tositrakul has been demonstrating in front of PTT headquarters.
PTT director Pailin Chuchottaworn calls the allegations biased and only half true. The industry price is 19,5 baht when excise duty and a contribution to the State Oil Fund are included. He also brushed off another accusation about the profit on petrol with a calculation.
Pailin says the protest leaders walk away whenever PTT staff are invited to explain the pricing structure. And then they repeat the accusations over and over without using the correct information. […] We live in an ignorant society, led by a group of people with wrong views.'
- The famous luk thung singer Sayan Sanya died of cancer at the age of 60 in Thonburi hospital yesterday. Sayan was discovered by the famous songwriter Cholathee Tharnthong when he was a luk thung hummed song while washing cars. Cholathee gave him his song Police Chief's Daughter which became a huge hit. Sayan has recorded more than a thousand songs.
– A first arrest has been made in the case of the stolen visa stickers from the embassy in Kuala Lumpur. The police have arrested a 39-year-old woman who has confessed to selling a sticker to three foreigners. They were delivered by an Indian man. The man charged 30.000 baht for a sticker, of which she received 3.000 baht. The case came to light because a Cameroonian turned out to have a false sticker in his passport last month.
– The 80-year-old former abbot of Wat Tarn En in Ayutthaya died after a fall of 4 meters from his room. Police suspect he was pushed out of the window by a thief, who made off with expensive Buddha amulets.
Economic news
– The Fiscal Policy Office of the Ministry of Finance has dropped further with its forecast of economic growth. In June, the FPO estimated it at 4,5 percent, now it thinks the growth will be between 3,8 and 4 percent.
With exports and tourism accounting for 73 percent of gross domestic product, the global economic slump will take its toll, said Ekniti Nitithanprapas, deputy director general of the FPO. This month, the FPO will release a new forecast if domestic spending and private investment continue to decline.
Ekniti expects the economy to pick up next year. Developed economies such as Japan, the US and Europe already recovered in the second quarter, but it will take some time for the effects to be felt in Thailand. He calls investments in infrastructure crucial to stimulate the country's economic growth.
– The government should pay more attention to rubber processing as a long-term solution to the low rubber prices instead of price interventions, said Chayo Trangadisaikul, director of Bangkok Metropolis Motor Co and deputy secretary general of the Federation of Thai Industries. This reduces exports and thus helps to support the price.
The Ministry of Industry will form a public-private committee and ask the Thai Industrial Standards Institute to establish a standard for tires in line with the rules of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. Currently, Thailand's fifteen tire manufacturers send their products abroad for testing. That takes two to three months. When they can be tested domestically, the process takes 30 to 45 days at most. The construction of a test unit will cost 1 billion baht and it would be the first in Asean.
Thailand itself processes only 13 percent of the 3,7 million tons of natural rubber it produces annually. In the first half of this year, 527.000 tons of raw rubber were processed: 363.000 tons for car tires, 70.000 tons for gloves, 70.000 tons for electrical cords and the rest for other products such as condoms.
– New condos along the BTS route Talat Phlu-Bang Wa, which will open in December, are selling like hot cakes, they are selling faster than the condos along earlier recent expansions. In the first half of this year, the take up rates 86,1 percent. The average price along this route remains relatively low at 63.457 baht per square meter.
Elsewhere, prices are higher and they rise even more when the train starts moving. Along the Wong Wian Yai-Talat Phlu route, the square meter price is now 82.543 baht compared to 63.123 baht in 2009.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post