Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced recently that the first lot of Covid-19 vaccines will arrive this month as promised, saying February is still not over as he slammed critics for attacking the government’s tardiness.
The minister said the vaccine procurement process has stumbled slightly, but it is still in line with the plan that the first batch will arrive in February.
Thailand is scheduled to take delivery of 2 million doses of the inoculation from Chinese vaccine producer Sinovac Biotech between now and April.
The Thai government has been criticised for being slow in the rollout of inoculations compared to neighbouring countries like Singapore and Indonesia.
Anutin, however, insisted that the government has paid earnest money to Sinovac Biotech and the order has been placed.
He added that the order was placed under expert advice on the vaccine’s effectiveness, price and storage.
He also said the vaccine was not bought on the World Health Organisation’s Covax deal, because the price of the vaccine is higher than if bought directly from producers.
The e-service tax will come into effect after six months, following its publication in the Government Gazette.
The gazette website has published Revenue Code Amendment Act (No. 53), 2024, which is the collection of value-added tax from foreign service providers who have income in Thailand, such as Facebook, Google, Netflix, Spotify, etc.
The Act will come into effect six months after its publication in the gazette.
The director-general of the Revenue Department, Ekniti Nitithanprapas, said that after the law was published in the Government Gazette, there would be another 180 days before it would take effect.
The department expects about Bt5 billion in revenue in the last quarter of fiscal year 2021.
“The department is in talks with entrepreneurs to simplify their tax payment system,” said Ekniti. Increased use of online platforms abroad has significantly increased the revenue estimate from the previously projected Bt3 billion, he said.
Collection of VAT from a digital platforms abroad is a matter of concern to tax authorities around the world since they want to create fairness for entrepreneurs in the country who have to pay tax. There are laws in more than 60 countries, such as the US, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Australia and others, he said.
Netizens have raised questions over actress-singer Jennis Oprasert (aka Jennis BNK48) not being nominated for Best Actress at the Suphannahong National Film Awards, with some even suspecting political bias due to her pro-democracy point of view.
On Wednesday, the National Federation of Thai Film Associations revealed the names of nominated movies, actors and actresses for its awards to be presented at the end of this month.
Jennis, who acted in the drama movie “Where We Belong”, was not among the five nominated.
The nominations stirred a debate among movie critics, fans and fanpage. Some netizens claimed that her role was memorable and the actress had been awarded on other stages – both domestic and international – such as Thai Film Director Award in Thailand and the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.
Some even suspected that this case was linked to Jennis’s pro-democracy point of view.
In response to netizens’ questions, federation chairman Somchai Chatpattanasiri explained that to nominate actresses or actors, the committee had considered other factors related to the movies in addition to the performance, such as revenue collection.
Besides, he denied that the committee’s consideration was related to the actress’s political point of view.
NationalFeb 12. 2021Photo credit: the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP)’s Facebook PR page
By THE NATION
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has taken a leopard kitten into its care, after an alleged illegal trader of the animal was arrested on Thursday afternoon.
Police lured the alleged Indian trader – Manimaran Ramsamy – by ordering the leopard. The man was arrested at a petrol station in Bangkok’s Bang Khun Thian area.
At 5.30pm the same day, the kitten was taken to the DNP for caring. An initial inspection showed that the kitten was less than a month old. It was male and in an anxious state due to its previous treatment.
DNP’s Facebook page said that the officials had released the leopard temporarily in a wide field, in a bid to curb its anxiety. After checking its health thoroughly, the animal will be moved to a wildlife breeding centre under the DNP.
From next Wednesday, Twitter in Thailand will make a short insertion to identify accounts owned by government media.The system has been used since August 2020 in some countries, such as the US, the UK, Russia, China and France.
It will expand to other countries, such as Canada, Cuba, Germany, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
The Thai Transportation Operators Association has sent a proposal to the government, seeking assistance for operators of non-regular buses who have been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis and have not received any direct help from the government.
The association president, Wasuchet Sophonsathien, said on Friday that a proposal had been submitted to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha on February 9 through Disthat Hotrakit, secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s Office.
The association has proposed three main approaches.
The first approach is to help reduce expenses by the state paying salaries to employees up to 50 per cent of the ceiling of Bt15,000, or Bt7,500 per person for three months, covering approximately 50,000 people, including exemption from annual tax as well as overdue fines of cars and establishments.
The second approach suggests “liquidity enhancement” with the government providing assistance for 40,000 non-regular buses at Bt5,000 per vehicle for three months, or Bt15,000 per vehicle, totalling Bt600 million. A fund should also be set up to improve vehicle condition at Bt300,000 per vehicle, using the plate registration as a guarantee;
The government has also been urged to help the operators generate revenue by promoting travel by government officers since the travel budget is currently being cut by various agencies.
The association also requested the hiring of buses of non-regular operators throughout the country, 100 vehicles per province, taking people to travel across the province to stimulate tourism and generate income for each area. If 4,000 people travel to each province, the whole country will have 300,000 travellers, generating more than Bt300 million from a support of only Bt76 million, the association said.
Chulalongkorn University will be closed from February 12 to 28, after the number of Covid-19 cases found since February 5 in its area in Bangkok increased to 20.
The temporary closure was aimed at containing the situation in the university, as well as to prevent an increase of new cases among staff and students, the university said. A statement issued on Thursday urged university staff and students not to leave their residence, and to avoid going to public spaces. Study during the closure time will be organised online.
However, staff will be allowed to visit the university for important work as necessary, the statement said.
The moderate high pressure continues to cover upper Thailand, leading to cool to cold weather with light fog in the morning, the Thailand Meteorological Department said on Friday.
People should take care of their health due to the variable weather, the department said. Meanwhile, the northeast monsoon still prevails over the Gulf and the South with isolated thundershowers in some provinces, it added.
The weather forecast for the next 24 hours:
Bangkok and its vicinity: cool morning with light fog; minimum temperature 21-23 degrees Celsius, maximum 32-35°C; northeasterly winds 10-20 kilometres per hour kph)..
North: Cool to cold in the morning with light fog; minimum temperature 13-17°C, maximum 29-35°C; cold to very cold on mountaintops with minimum 4-12°C; southwesterly winds 10-20kph.
Northeast: Cool to cold in the morning with light fog; minimum temperature 13-18°C, maximum 28-32°C; cold to very cold on mountaintop with minimum temperature 6-11°C; northeasterly winds 10-20kph.
Central: Cool in the morning with light fog; minimum temperature 18-21°C, maximum 32-35°C; northeasterly winds 10-20kph.
East: Cool in the morning with light fog; minimum temperature 18-24°C, maximum 31-35°C; northeasterly winds 15-30kph; waves about a metre high.
South (east coast): Partly cloudy with isolated thundershowers mostly in Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung and Songkhla provinces; minimum temperature 21-25°C, maximum 30-36°C; easterly winds 15-30kph; waves about a metre high.
South (west coast): Partly cloudy with isolated thundershowers mostly in Phang Nga, Phuket and Krabi provinces; minimum temperature 22-26°C, maximum 33-36°C; easterly winds 15-30kph; waves about a metre high and 1-2 metres offshore.
WASHINGTON – White House aides have gone to great lengths this week to emphasize that President Joe Biden is paying minimal attention, if any, to the fiery and harrowing trial of his predecessor unfolding down the street at the Capitol.
But as Biden on Thursday assiduously attended to his agenda – visiting the National Institues of Health for a vaccine announcement, talking with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – he let slip that he has at least one eye on the trial of former president Donald Trump.
Biden said he’d seen some of the presentation made by Democratic impeachment managers the day before, though not in real time. Their evidence featured graphic video of beatings, a shooting and the defacing of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, as well as new information about how close some senators had come to being overrun by the rioters who shouted “Fight For Trump” as they stormed the halls of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I, like other Americans, watched the news,” Biden said on Thursday.
He suggested the video evidence, including previously unseen footage of rioters brutally assaulting police officers, could be powerful enough to move some Republican senators toward convicting Trump.
“My guess is some minds may have been changed, but I don’t know,” Biden said.
For his official duties, Biden spent Thursday at NIH to visit the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory there and to talk about the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In the morning, he hosted Buttigieg by video, along with a bipartisan group of senators in person, to talk about the nation’s crumbling bridges and roads.
“I really, honest to God, never have thought of infrastructure as being a partisan issue,” Biden told reporters. “It’s about, I mean, a lot of bridges in West Virginia, a lot of dangerous spots along Route 9, in terms of Cancer Alley. A lot of places where we’re having problems all across the country.”
The focus on practical problem-solving is intentional. The trial of the former president taking place in the Senate, no matter how consequential for the country, distracts from the work of the new president. Biden’s team believes his political success is directly tied to showing concrete results, especially on the pandemic and the economy.
A 100-day clock is ticking on a wide range of campaign pledges, but almost everything Biden has done this week was overshadowed by the emotions and revelations of the impeachment trial. Cable television stations opted for wall-to-wall coverage of the trial over Biden’s official appearances or the White House daily press briefing.
Yet the president pushed ahead with his sometimes dry appearances. “My job is to deal with the promises I made. And we all know we have to move on. Today, it’s about jobs and infrastructure,” Biden told reporters.
The split screen between the new president and the old continued throughout the day.
As Biden began a late-afternoon tour of the viral pathogenesis lab, House impeachment managers were wrapping up their case against Trump.
As Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., closed the Senate proceedings for the day and senators prepared for Trump’s defense on Friday, reporters traveling with Biden watched as he and Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, got an update from scientists on the vaccine effort.
Biden made news, confirming a report in The Washington Post that the government would purchase 200 million additional vaccine doses, in remarks carried live by C-SPAN but apparently not elsewhere.
“We’ve now purchased enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all Americans,” Biden said as part of an emotional address in which he thanked scientists and medical professionals, adding that his administration’s effort to get ahead of the virus had been stymied by failures of the Trump team.
The visit was Biden’s third to a federal agency and the first directly linked to the most important short-term objective for his new administration – turning the corner on a pandemic that has killed more than 470,000 Americans.
“With every moment of despair this past year, you and all the heroes and heroines on the front lines of it and the frontiers of this pandemic remind us who we are,” Biden said. “We are America. We never give up. We never give in. We give back, and we follow the science and find the answers.”
With travel to other parts of the country limited by the pandemic, Biden’s short trips outside the White House have become part of a strategy to contrast the new president with his predecessor.
Biden’s call to patriotism on behalf of a common good came shortly after the House impeachment managers had played – and replayed – Trump’s call to supporters on Jan. 6 to “fight like hell” to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump sidelined diplomacy and retaliated against diplomats; Biden went to the State Department last week to thank them. Trump threatened to upend American alliances in Asia; Biden went to the Pentagon on Wednesday to thank U.S. troops and recommit to traditional alliances.
Trump’s lawyers have a few days to mount a defense, and the trial is expected to conclude sometime next week. White House advisers say they welcome the chance to turn the page, whatever the outcome. Trump appears to have enough support among Republicans to avoid conviction.
As momentum grew to impeach Trump, some Democrats worried that a drawn-out proceeding would make it harder for Biden to push through his agenda in the critical early weeks of his presidency. The result, a compromise of sorts, has been a fast-moving trial that Biden is trying to navigate around, stressing that the Senate should do as it likes while he focuses on the country’s problems.
For days, White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other aides had politely brushed aside questions about the new president’s views and viewing habits when it came to the trial.
Psaki has said Biden was not likely to watch the proceedings live nor receive regular updates. Biden, who served more than three decades in the Senate, would leave it to that body to reach a verdict without his imprimatur, she said.
On Thursday, Psaki took questions on a range of issues, from a computer chip shortage to the difficulties of reopening schools during the pandemic. Elsewhere, the White House announced the first meeting of the National Climate Task Force and released a list of sanctions targets in Myanmar.
Psaki was asked to elaborate on Biden’s comments on his reaction to the trial.
Anyone watching “found it harrowing and deeply disturbing,” Psaki said. “And, you know, that’s certainly how the president felt when he watched it, when he watched some of the clips.”
She added that Biden had been “shocked and saddened” by the assault on the Capitol, where he has spent much of his political life, and that the video was a powerful reminder of what Biden called an attack on American democracy.
But when asked whether that meant Biden thinks Trump should be convicted, Psaki was back on message.
“He’s not on the jury. He’s not in the Senate. He’s – his role is to be president of the United States,” she said.
The Golden Triangle Group (GTG) announced on Thursday that it has been successful in growing the “Raksa” variation of cannabis, which carries up to 15.8 per cent cannabidiol (CBD) extract in its flower.
The topic of cannabis has caught attention in Thailand, especially after the government agreed to turn it into a cash crop. CBD can be extracted from cannabis plants and used for medicinal and nutrition purposes.
GTG, meanwhile, is selling cannabis saplings and providing advice and training to those who want to go into contract farming.
The group reportedly bought the “Raksa” species from Jaime Carrión, founder of the “Resin Seed” seedbank and one of the first few to use CBD for medical purposes in Europe. Carrión has also been appointed as senior cultivation director for GTG.
Meanwhile, GTG has joined up with Chiang Rai Rajabhat University to study the perfect conditions for growing hemp. In addition to the Raksa species, GTG and the university are also studying other species of the plant in terms of CBD and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) extracts.
Anutin Charnvirakul
Jennis Oprasert
Photo credit: the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP)’s Facebook PR page
