Thailand’s outstanding public debt as of March 31 stands at 9.95 trillion baht or 60.58 per cent of the gross domestic product, a report from the Finance Ministry shows.
“Outstanding public debt is still in compliance with the State Fiscal and Financial Disciplines Act of 2018, which stipulates that outstanding public debt should not exceed 70 per cent of the GDP,” government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Monday.
On April 1, the Finance Ministry reported that the outstanding public debt as of February 28 was 9.8 trillion baht or 60.17 per cent of the GDP.
The ministry attributed the rise in public debt to the Covid-19 fallout, which prompted the government to issue measures to help affected people and stimulate the economy.
The ministry added that since the global Covid-19 situation began improving in March and economic activities started recovering, foreign currency revenue from exports kept the ratio of public debt low.
Key points in the public debt report as of March 31, 2022, are as follows:
60.58% of GDP (cannot exceed 70% as per the State Fiscal and Financial Disciplines Act)
9.95 trillion baht: Total outstanding public debt
16.42 trillion baht: Thailand’s GDP
26.77%: Ratio of government debt per fiscal year’s estimated revenue (cannot exceed 35%)
653.76 billion baht: Total government debt
2.44 trillion baht: Estimated revenue
1.79%: Ratio of debt in foreign currency against total public debt (must not exceed 10%)
178.11 billion baht: Total debt in foreign currency
0.07%: Ratio of debt in foreign currency against revenue from exports
The baht opened at 34.09 to the US dollar on Tuesday, unchanged from Monday’s closing rate.
The currency is expected to move in a range between 34 and 34.15 on Tuesday, said Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool.
Poon said the baht might fluctuate and strengthen during the day as the market opens to more risks and foreign investors return to the Thai stock market.
However, any rise would be limited as importers are waiting to buy the dollar at the support level, expected to be 34 to the dollar.
Poon said that the baht will move between 34 to 34.40 to the dollar until new factors emerge.
He advised businesses to use hedging tools such as options to manage risks in the highly volatile currency market.
The retail price of diesel will rise by one baht to 33 baht per litre as of Tuesday, the Fuel Fund Executive Committee announced on Monday.
The committee announced it was raising the price in line with the price of crude oil, which rose in the Dubai market from $138 to US$149 per barrel late last week.
As of Sunday, the Oil Fuel Fund is in a deficit of 81 billion baht, of which 45.9 billion baht deficit is in the oil subsidy and 35.4 billion baht in the LPG subsidy.
The fund’s liquidity stands at 9.7 billion baht, 3.2 billion baht of which is in the fund’s bank account and 6.5 billion baht deposited with the Finance Ministry.
The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) will hold discussions with the Interior Ministry to follow up on a request from the private sector for a review of the land and building tax.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Monday that he had told the FPO to analyse the land and building tax collection. His response followed a letter from the private sector to the Finance Ministry, seeking a postponement and reduction of the tax to ease the burden on citizens and operators amid the Covid-19 situation and the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The government has already implemented the tax.
Arkhom said the FPO will have to find guidelines to help citizens because the land and building tax is a part of local revenue, which will be used for local development.
According to Thansettakij media, it would be hard to reduce the land and building tax in this fiscal year as tax collections had started in April.
However, local authorities could use their power to postpone the tax collection. For example, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration could defer the tax collection from April to July.
In the past two years, the government has reduced the land tax by 90 per cent to reduce the impact from the Covid-19 situation, as a result local revenue slumped by THB30 billion, while the government could not find alternate sources of revenue to compensate for the loss, Thansettakij said.
The government had offered THB10 billion assistance in fiscal year 2019-20, but it could not offer a similar support in 2020-21 as it lacked a budget. If the government postpones or reduces the tax collection, it might have a problem in finding a revenue source to make up the shortfall, Thansettakij said.
However, there are some ways to reduce the tax. For example, tax on agricultural land or building owned by an individual person could be exempted or reduced.
Digital content created by 53 Thai companies fetched some THB690.65 million from foreign buyers in the latest fair organised by the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP).
The department’s director-general, Phusit Ratanakul, said the DITP had recently organised the Bangkok International Digital Content Festival 2022 (BIDC 2022) with cooperation from eight private and state partners to help Thai digital content producers sell their products.
He said the fair successfully matched 46 leading global firms from 12 countries with the 53 Thai digital content makers.
The matchings led to 266 online negotiating partners and helped the Thai firms sell products worth THB690.65 million, Phusit added.
Animations accounted for THB412.9 million, digital characters for THB150 million, games THB103.9 million and e-learning courses THB23.6 million.
The foreign firms were mostly interested in Thailand’s animation outsourcing services, followed by game outsourcing service, game development and animation co-production, Phusit added.
It was the ninth time that the DITP had held the fair with cooperation from the Thai Game Software Industry Association, the ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok Chapter, the Digital Content Association of Thailand, the E-Learning Association of Thailand, and the Thai Animation and Computer Graphics Association, Phusit said.
Three public organisations — Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency and the Creative Economy Agency — supported the fair.
Phusit said the DITP and its partners wanted to promote digital content as one of key industries for steering the country’s economy in line with the government’s creative economy policy and plan to promote Thailand as digital content hub that will also become the country’s soft power.
Jumphol Saimala, chief executive officer of Principal Asset Management Co Ltd, demonstrated the company’s success in the anti-corruption campaign among private organizations, executives, and employees by continuing the company’s membership under the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption (CAC).
Principal Asset Management Co Ltd is committed to providing the best services to customers while operating business under good governance practices to ensure fairness to all stakeholders. In 2016 the company expressed interest in joining the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption, and was granted the membership status in 2018. In April this year, Principal received a certificate for CAC confirming the extension of membership status for two consecutive terms.
Innobic (Asia) Co Ltd, a subsidiary of national oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc which it co-owns with Aztiq HK Ltd, recently acquired Alvogen Emerging Markets Holdings Ltd (AEMH), a major shareholder of Lotus Pharmaceutical Ltd and the sole owner of Adalvo Ltd.
Both the acquired companies are leading pharmaceutical and patent trading firms with networks of representatives worldwide.
Under the US$475 million (THB16.46 billion) acquisition deal, Innobic became the largest shareholder of Lotus Pharmaceutical with a 37 per cent stake, and of Adalvo with a 60 per cent stake. The acquisition aims to increase the strength of both Lotus Pharmaceutical and Adalvo as world leaders in pharmaceutical and patent trading industries, as well as increase Thailand’s accessibility to drugs of international standard.
Buranin Rattanasombat, chairman of Innobic and senior executive vice president for innovation and new ventures at PTT, said that Aztiq has a long-established presence in healthcare and drug manufacturing, which will help drive the businesses of Lotus Pharmaceutical and Adalvo forward and enable Innobic to manufacture high-quality drugs at affordable prices.
“Thailand’s drug market has an approximate value of THB200 billion to THB250 billion per year with continuous average annual growth of 3-5 per cent,” he said. “Although the sales of drugs for communicable diseases are greater than that for NCD [non-communicable diseases], the market for NCD drugs is gaining momentum as Thailand is entering an ageing society. Elders are the age group with the highest risk of having NCDs, while available drugs in the market still have high prices.”
“Thailand is importing over 70 percent of drugs used in the country, and less than 30 per cent of drugs are manufactured domestically. Mostly domestically drug manufacturing (90%) used imported API. Furthermore, in the future, local drug factories will be required to implement GMP [good manufacturing practice] standards, which will prompt them to seek higher technology,” he pointed out. “The acquisition will therefore help increase the country’s capacity in manufacturing affordable drugs using internationally recognised technology, especially for NCDs such as cancer and diabetes. This will also expand our market penetration capability at the regional level, as Asean nations are also entering an ageing society.”
“Having a partnership with Lotus Pharmaceutical will enable Innobic to receive knowledge transfer of world-class drug manufacturing techniques, as Lotus Pharmaceutical has been manufacturing drugs for not only Asian countries, but also for the European and American markets that require higher pharmaceutical standards,” added Buranin.
After the acquisition, Lotus Pharmaceutical will serve as Innobic’s main manufacturing base, while Adalvo will be responsible for trading of drugs and related patents through its global network. This partnership will put Innobic at the forefront of global drug manufacturing companies in a short time while being backed by a comprehensive sales network and growth opportunities in Asian, European and American markets.
“We hope that the partnership will boost our expertise in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in biosimilar drugs which are a new innovation that require modern supporting technology,” said Buranin. “Thailand has several capable medical professionals, but to spearhead our researches in the global market we will need a strong coach and partner with comprehensive manufacturing, researching, and marketing network. With this acquisition, Innobic aims to become the country’s leader in the Life Science industry, which is one of the 10 target industries under the government’s Thailand 4.0 policy. We will also continue to invest in medical-related technology, including research and development in the field of molecular genome, mutation, and medical equipment.”
Robert Wessman, chairman of Lotus Pharmaceutical and founder of Aztiq, said that the Taiwan-based Lotus Pharmaceutical has always been focusing on manufacturing drugs that could save people’s lives, as well as pioneering several pharmaceutical standards that are recognised in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
“We realised that this partnership is an opportunity for us to manufacture drugs that have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for Asian markets at affordable prices,” he said. “It would also make Thailand a central hub for long-term pharmaceutical investment in Asean, as well as strengthen the country’s economy through high-quality drugs affordable for everyone and an opportunity to penetrate other markets in Asia, Europe and the Americas.”
The baht opened at 34.09 to the US dollar on Monday, strengthening from Friday’s close of 34.18.
The Thai currency is expected to move between 34 and 34.20 per dollar during the day and between 34 and 34.40 during the week, Krungthai market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
The baht might rise in value past the support level of 34/dollar if the market continues to open to risks, he added. However, any rise would be limited as importers are waiting to buy the dollar at the support level.
Moreover, foreign investor inflows to Thailand may sluggish until new factors emerge.
Poon said that the dollar could face pressure if the market opens to more risk and the US Federal Reserve does not hasten to increase the interest rate. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s signal it will hike the interest rate could pressure the dollar as the euro is strengthening.
He said the currency market is highly volatile due to several factors, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Covid-19 situation in China, and concern about the Fed’s financial direction.
He advised businesses to use hedging tools such as options to manage risks in the highly volatile currency market.
The price of Pepsi in shops is set to rise by up to 2 baht per bottle/can due to increasing packaging costs, the manufacturer said on Sunday.
The move will add to rising living costs that the Bangkok of Thailand blames for slowing economic activity. April saw inflation hit 4.7 per cent, breaching the central bank’s 1-3 per cent target for the fourth month in a row.
Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand) explained the decision to raise the price of Pepsi was made after the cost of plastic bottles and aluminium cans rose.
The price hike officially becomes effective from June 1 (Wednesday) but will hit shops in July.
The company said the price of a small Pepsi bottle or can will rise by 1 baht, from 10-15 baht to 11-16 baht per item. Meanwhile the retail price of a large bottle will go up by 2 baht, while the wholesale price will increase by 20-24 baht per pack.
The company said the price of its other soft-drink brands, including 7-Up and Mirinda, would remain the same.
It said it will offer discounts so retailers could maintain the price of Pepsi throughout June before the hike hits shops in July.
After four years of financial and organisational restructuring, Nation Group (Thailand) is set to become debt-free following Wednesday’s sale of shares in Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
Nation Group sold 691,032,167 NBC shares at a price of 1.30 baht apiece, totalling 898.34 million baht, to two major shareholders of One to One Contacts – Boon-aue Chitthanom and Nattapong Sitaworarat.
With the NBC purchase, One to One and its allies plan to expand its Happy Home Shopping business to cover health products and enter the telemedicine business in the future.
The shares sold accounted for 61.4 per cent of Nation Group’s stake in NBC.
The sale was approved by Nation Group shareholders in April following a resolution by its executive board in March.
The NBC share price on the Stock Exchange of Thailand was 2.54 baht, down 0.04, at close of trade on Friday.
NBC Next Vision (NNV), which operates Nation TV and Nation Online, will remain with Nation Group after the NBC share sale.
Nation Group is focused on online businesses, which have generated increasingly significant revenue every month. Nation TV and Krungthep Turakij are two of its non-online businesses.
It was the ninth time that the DITP had held the fair with cooperation from the Thai Game Software Industry Association, the ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok Chapter, the Digital Content Association of Thailand, the E-Learning Association of Thailand, and the Thai Animation and Computer Graphics Association, Phusit said.
Phusit said the DITP and its partners wanted to promote digital content as one of key industries for steering the country’s economy in line with the government’s creative economy policy and plan to promote Thailand as digital content hub that will also become the country’s soft power.
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