New technology to collect tax on beer will boost government revenue by Bt6 billion per year, says the Excise Department. The technology will be trialled next year to tax alcohol, before being rolled out to cigarettes, oil and other products.
Patchara Anuntasilpa, head of the Excise Department, revealed today (July 9) that the new system will replace manpower and outdated technology, helping to close flaws in existing tax collection.
The new “Direct Coding” technology will collect tax on canned beer and domestic bottled beer produced at all plants in the next year. It will then be extended to taxation of other products.
“We are using it first on beer products because beer is currently subject to tax on the 15th day of the month after it emerges the production plant. More importantly, no stamps or tax payment marks are displayed on the products, only a label on the side that says ‘tax already paid’, by which we cannot clearly verify whether tax has been paid or not. Our study shows that the new taxation method will help to boost tax revenue on beer by Bt6 billion per year,” said Patchara.
Beer is currently taxed under a flow meter system installed in the brewery production line. This costs the department Bt100 million, has a limited lifetime and maintenance costs of Bt15-20 million per year. However, the flow meter system is not capable of measuring the amount of beer produced daily or the median losses for accurate tax calculation.
State enterprises and agencies to which the Finance Ministry holds a less than 50-per-cent stake have contributed Bt156 billion in revenue to state coffers from October 2019 to June 2020, said Prapas Kong-led, director general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo).
This amount accounts for 83 per cent of the total targeted earnings of Bt188 billion. In June alone, these enterprises contributed Bt7.19 billion.
As of June, the top 10 contributors to the state coffers are the Government Lottery Office with a contribution of Bt34 billion, followed by PTT Bt29 billion, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand Bt28.6 billion, Government Savings Bank Bt18 billion, Airports of Thailand Bt10 billion, Government Housing Bank Bt5.9 billion, Provincial Electricity Authority Bt5.7 billion, Port of Thailand Bt4 billion, CAT Telecom Bt3.8 billion, and Expressway Authority of Thailand Bt3.8 billion
The price of gold rose by Bt100 per baht weight in morning trade on Thursday (July 9), the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.28am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt26,550 per baht weight and selling price Bt26,650, while gold ornaments cost Bt26,075.20 and Bt27,150, respectively.
At close on Wednesday (July 8), the buying price of a gold bar was Bt26,450 per baht weight and selling price Bt26,550, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt25,969.08 and Bt27,050, respectively.
Spot gold price moved to US$1,809 (Bt56,421) on Thursday morning after the price rose by $10.7 to $1,820.6 (Bt56,783) per ounce at close on Wednesday, the highest in almost nine years as investors expected governments and central banks worldwide to issue economic stimulus measures to mitigate the Covid-19 impact.
Meanwhile, gold gained from the weakening dollar as well.
Hong Kong gold price rose by HK$85, opened at $16,695 (Bt67,184) per tael Thursday morning.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 6.51 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 1,368.97 in the morning session on Thursday (July 9).
A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities expected the index to fluctuate between 1,355 and 1,370 due to a lack of new factors to stimulate the economy.
“The market gained positive sentiment from hopes over the V-shaped economic recovery as the US, Europe and China economic data rose significantly last month and there was speculation in stocks whose second-quarter performance, was expected to show big improvement,” the analyst said.
“However, the market would be under pressure from uncertainty following the Covid-19 outbreak, as the number of new cases in the US continues to increase by approximately 61,000 people per day.”
He recommended that investors buy:
▪︎ Food and Electronic stocks that benefit from the weakening baht, such as TU, CPF, GFPT, TFG, KCE, DELTA and HANA.
▪︎ Stocks whose second-quarter performance will improve, such as TOP, PTTGC, SPRC, BGRIM, CKP, TASCO, STA and SPALI.
▪︎ Defensive stocks, such as INTUCH, TTW and DIF.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index fell 10.76 points or 0.78 per cent, closing at 1,362.46 on Wednesday (July 8). Total transactions stood at Bt66.274 billion with an index high of 1,379.71 and a low of 1,361.24.
By The Washington Post · David Nakamura, David J. Lynch · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, WORLD, POLITICS, THE-AMERICAS WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Wednesday marked the start of a three-nation regional trade deal in a Rose Garden ceremony with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that took on a celebratory tone discordant with the widespread economic damage of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The two populist-leaning presidents, from opposite ends of the political spectrum, signed a joint proclamation hailing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which took effect at the start of July, as the beginning of a new chapter in North America’s economic partnership.
The event represented an attempt by the White House at counterprogramming as Trump has faced tumbling public approval over his handling of the pandemic and the mass demonstrations for racial justice across the country. And it served as a reminder that the president had hoped to cruise to reelection on a strong economy – a strategy dashed as tens of millions of Americans have been forced out of work since March.
Canada was not represented at the signing after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly turned down an invitation. But Trump, who said he spoke with Trudeau by phone, and López Obrador lavished praise on one another and touted their unlikely partnership. Bilateral relations had frayed over immigration tensions before the leftist Mexican leader took office 18 months ago.
Trump thanked his counterpart for responding to U.S. pressure to help curb a major spike in unauthorized immigration last year, saying border control has “been very, very tight, and you’ve done a great job.” Border crossings began falling last year after Mexico adopted stronger new policies and the Trump administration took measures to speed deportations and try to block asylum seekers. The numbers continued to drop until last month, when they rose slightly.
López Obrador responded that Trump has “honored our position as an independent nation” and “behaved with kindness and respect.”
The positive comments from the two leaders on Wednesday were striking when compared to the tensions between the neighboring countries in recent years.
Trump was elected on an anti-immigration platform and said he would build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and force Mexico to pay for it. Mexico rejected that idea outright and U.S. taxpayers have funded the barrier, which is under construction. Last year, Trump also threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico if its leaders didn’t do more to prevent migrants from entering the United States. A deal was struck to avoid a trade war, but not without hard feelings on both sides.
On Wednesday, Trump and López Obrador did their best to avoid any appearance of friction between the two countries.
The bonhomie at the event did little to mask Trump’s political struggles. The president and his White House allies spent a second consecutive day on a public campaign to reopen schools this fall despite public health concerns from local jurisdictions and medical experts as nationwide virus infection rates have spiked to a record high of more than 50,000 per day. Trump and his aides disputed school reopening safety guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as too muscular and suggested they would be rewritten.
During his Rose Garden remarks, Trump offered an upbeat but inaccurate assessment of the administration’s response to the virus.
“We’re safely reopening the country and, more importantly, we’re safely reopening our schools,” he said, even though experts said that infection rates have spiked as states have begun to reopen businesses.
The three North American nations signed the USMCA in late 2018 after more than a year of negotiations that began when Trump threatened to pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal that had been in effect since 1994.
Analysts have said the new pact represents a modest reworking of the old deal, but Trump has touted it as a major improvement that would bolster American manufacturing.
“We’re already seeing the fruits,” Trump said.
The deal aims to reshape North American auto production by requiring more work be performed in high-wage factories in the United States. But an independent assessment last year concluded the agreement would have a limited effect on the overall U.S. economy.
In a 379-page report, the International Trade Commission said USMCA would boost output in the $21 trillion U.S. economy by just 0.35 percent. And modest gains in auto industry production and employment would come at the expense of other sectors, with production in the U.S. becoming more expensive and exports declining.
At the time, the administration disputed those findings, saying it was privy to confidential auto industry investment plans that promised greater rewards.
In a briefing for reporters, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called the deal “good for businesses as President Trump rebuilds the strongest, most inclusive economy in history . . . It will help jump-start our economy.”
López Obrador’s decision to join Trump provoked some criticism in Mexico City that the trip – the Mexican leader’s first outside his country since taking office – could appear as an endorsement the conservative U.S. president in an election year. He took a commercial flight to Washington, sitting in coach and making a connection in Atlanta, a sign of López Obrador’s effort to distance himself from the perks enjoyed by past Mexican presidents.
“We had a good debate in my country about the convenience of this trip,” he said through an interpreter in the Rose Garden. “I decided to come because it’s very important to be launching this agreement. I also wanted to be here to thank the people of the United States and its government, and thank you, President Trump, for being increasingly respectful with” Mexico.
Though the two expressed confidence that the pact would pay dividends, experts have raised questions over how well some of the new trade deal’s core provisions will work out.
The Trump administration last year agreed to modify the deal under pressure from House Democrats, who were delaying ratification. New language was added at the 11th hour to make sure that Mexico implemented a range of domestic labor reforms, including granting workers the right to form independent unions.
In congressional testimony last month, Robert Lighthizer, the president’s chief trade negotiator, called USMCA “the best trade agreement in U.S. history,” but acknowledged that enforcing the labor provisions would be difficult.
The agreement includes a novel provision that would allow the U.S. to temporarily block exports from specific Mexican factories if it believes worker rights were being violated there while awaiting a decision from an independent panel of experts.
Even as López Obrador arrived at the White House, there were signs of trouble on the labor front. Susana Prieto, a Mexican attorney representing workers in maquiladora factories near the U.S. border, accused the Mexican government of seeking to intimidate her with a prosecution on trumped-up charges.
Prieto, who has sought higher wages and reforms to make factory work safer amid the coronavirus pandemic, was released from a Mexican jail on July 1. She had been imprisoned for three weeks on charges that included inciting a riot, after seeking to register an independent union. The terms of her release required her to leave the border region near Texas for the state of Chihuahua, hundreds of miles away. But prosecutors there also have warrants for her arrest, she says.
At a news conference, Prieto called López Obrador’s visit to Washington “completely inappropriate.”
Also on Wednesday, thousands of miles from the White House, officials in Florida detained the former governor of Chihuahua state, Mexican officials said – in what amounted to a coup for López Obrador. While Trump didn’t mention the arrest of Cesar Duarte, it was widely seen in Mexico as a good will gesture from the White House. The Mexican president had promised to win the extradition of the notorious politician, wanted on corruption charges.
“A gift from the U. S – the capture of Cesar Duarte” read the headline on the website of the daily Reforma. Duarte has been a fugitive since 2017.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Vildana Hajric, Sarah Ponczek · BUSINESS U.S. stocks rose as investors looked past tensions between Washington and Beijing and sought out tech companies thought to be insulated from rising coronavirus infections.
The S&P 500 Index climbed to a one-month high, while advances in highflying megacaps like Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. sent the Nasdaq Composite to a record. HSBC Holdings Plc slumped after a report that some of President Donald Trump’s advisers proposed a move to destabilize Hong Kong’s currency peg to punish China. Banks led European stocks lower.
Gold topped $1,800 an ounce, while Treasury yields inched higher and the dollar slumped.
Analysts are debating what comes next for the U.S. economy as states allow businesses to reopen, but with much of the world stuck at home, investors have been bidding up tech shares. That pattern appeared again Wednesday, with pandemic-sensitive sectors like airlines sinking even as online names held up.
“While the market largely reflects investor optimism, the covid situation is seemingly evolving by the hour and we’ve also reintroduced trade tensions to the mix, so there’s a bunch to digest,” said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial.
Tensions between the U.S. and China have been growing after Beijing asserted broad new powers to rein in opposition in Hong Kong, pouring cold water over hopes the world’s largest economies will patch up relations soured by a lingering trade spat.
Stocks in Shanghai powered ahead for a seventh day. Investors have been drawn to China’s markets amid efforts by regulators to boost the attractiveness of stocks and hopes for an economic recovery.
Signals pertaining to the coronavirus have been mixed in recent days and weeks. The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surpassed 3 million Wednesday, with data showing a 2% increase in cases nationally. However, the fatality rate has remained low, a data point flagged by optimists.
“We’re sitting here kind of saying, ‘Well what comes next?’ And it’s not really clear,” said Kathy Jones, chief fixed-income strategist for the Schwab Center for Financial Research. “There’s a lot of question marks about how will this play out in the second half.”
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
– The S&P 500 Index rose 0.8% as of 4 p.m. EDT.
– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.7%.
– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7%.
Currencies
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.5%.
– The euro advanced 0.5% to $1.1329.
– The Japanese yen gained 0.3% to 107.24 per dollar.
– The British pound rose 0.6% to $1.2612.
Bonds
– The yield on 10-year Treasurys rose one basis point to 0.65%.
– Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to -0.44%.
– Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.18%.
Commodities
– West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $40.84 a barrel.
Airports of Thailand (AOT) is looking into the option of signing a joint venture with Thai Airways International (THAI) for the operation of three main services at Suvarnabhumi Airport, namely ground services, aircraft repair and the cargo centre.
“The running of these three units cannot be disrupted, because that would affect the operations of Suvarnabhumi Airport,” AOT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said on Wednesday (July 8).
After the airline applied for rehabilitation through the Central Bankruptcy Court, he said the AOT board has set up a panel to come up with policies in line with the rehab plan.
This committee will study the effects the rehab plan may have on the airport’s operations, as well as solutions to these problems.
THAI has had to suspend all flights since June after entering rehabilitation.
Nitinai, meanwhile, said AOT was ready to enter a joint venture with THAI in the running of the three operations to ensure continuous service and to ensure there is no adverse effect. Once THAI returns to normal, he said, AOT will be happy to let the airline buy back shares of the three operations.
However, he added, before any moves can be made, AOT has to wait for the court’s investigation hearing on August 17. If THAI’s rehab plan goes ahead without any objections, AOT can formally enter negotiations with the airline.
Meanwhile, THAI owes AOT around Bt3 billion, Bt2 billion of which it owes to technicians at Don Mueang Airport, which has been under dispute for a long time. However, Nitinai said AOT is not too concerned about this debt because the amount is not high, adding that it is more concerned about airport operations going ahead without hinderance.
THAI’s rehabilitation plan reportedly includes the possibility of separating business units, such as the aviation kitchen department, products and mailing department as well as mechanics department, so they are open for private investment.
The Cabinet has approved the first batch of economic stimulus projects worth Bt92.4 billion and also allocated Bt15.5 billion to support job creation and tourism-related projects.
Traisulee Traisoranakul, the government’s deputy spokeswoman, said the Cabinet on Wednesday (July 8) agreed in principle to okay the first batch of economic stimulus projects under the Bt400-billon emergency package to shore up the economy impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The combined cost of the first 186 projects approved in principle is Bt92.4 billion. The final approval will follow shortly, Traisulee said.
These projects cover three areas — Bt51.3 billion to boost the grass roots economy, Bt20.3 billion for financing sustainable development projects, and Bt 22.4 billion for boosting consumption and tourism.
The Cabinet has agreed to allocate Bt15.5 billion to finance five projects which are designed to create employment and promote tourism. Other projects will be approved in subsequent Cabinet meetings.
First, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry will launch retraining projects for farmers with a budget of Bt9.8 billion. The projects are expected to create 8,018 jobs and generate income for 44,099 farmers nationwide.
Second, the Interior Ministry will implement projects costing Bt4.8 billion to raise the quality of life of farmers. These projects will create 6,492 jobs for farmers and generate income for 25,179 farmer households and increase tree plantation to 25,759 rai.
Third, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry will implement community businesses regarding earth and fertiliser services with a budget of Bt169.9 million. The ministry aims to create 2,364 jobs and boost value-added business worth Bt253 million as well as reduce chemical fertiliser usage by 20 per cent, or by 18,000 tonnes.
Fourth, the Tourism and Sports Ministry will spend Bt15 million to create safety zones for tourists. It will cover five locations, namely Bangkok’s China Town, Asiatique in Bangkok, Chonburi’s Bang Saen beach, Ban Rai Kong King village in northern Chiang Mai, and Nan province’s old town.
Fifth, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will organise wildlife learning in national conservation parks for tourists with a budget of Bt741.5 million. These projects will create jobs for 1,250 people in wildlife conservation areas, including 125 local tourist guides and entrepreneurs.
She said the Cabinet had also approved Thailand’s hosting of MotoGPmotorcycle racing from 2021-25 with a budget of Bt900 million.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index fell 10.76 points or 0.78 per cent, closing at 1,362.46 today (July 8). Total transactions stood at Bt66.274 billion with an index high of 1,379.71 and a low of 1,361.24.
During the morning session, a stock analyst at Krungsri Securities said he expected the index to fall between 1,360 and 1,365 before rebounding owing to uncertainty about the Covid-19 pandemic as the US is getting approximately 50,000 new cases daily. This negative sentiment has also brought down the price of crude oil.
However, he said, the index will rebound from speculation in stocks whose second-quarter performance is expected to improve, while export stocks should benefit from a weakening baht.
The top 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were STGT, AOT, PTT, STA, EA, ADVANC, PTTEP, KBANK, CPALL and TOP.
As of 4.30pm, the price of crude oil dropped by US$0.10 or 0.25 per cent to $40.52 per barrel, while gold rose by $1 or 0.06 per cent, to $1,810.90 per ounce.
Asian indices were mixed:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 22,438.65, down 176.64 points, or 0.78 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,403.44, up 58.10 points, or 1.74 per cent, while Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 13,406.37, up 242.39 points, or 1.84 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 26,129.18, up 153.52 points, or 0.59 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,158.88, down 5.29 points, or 0.24 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 12,170.19, up 77.22 points, or 0.64 per cent.
By The Washington Post · Renae Merle, Taylor Telford · BUSINESS, WORLD, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that it maintained weak internal controls, including processing hundreds of transactions for Jeffrey Epstein despite the billionaire’s troubled history.
The penalty announced Tuesday by New York State Department of Financial Services marks the first time regulators have punished a bank for its relationship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
Despite knowing Epstein’s “terrible criminal history,” the bank “inexcusably failed to detect or prevent millions of dollars of suspicious transactions,” Linda Lacewell, the superintendent of financial services, said in a statement.
The settlement comes almost exactly a year after Epstein was arrested on accusations he had abused women and girls for decades, and enlisted his victims to recruit others. Prosecutors said Epstein preyed on the financial needs of his victims by promising them career opportunities and educational assistance, and used a convoluted web of shell companies to conceal the trafficking and abuse. He allegedly used private planes, helicopters, boats and cars to transport them to his secluded islands.
Epstein, 66, hanged himself last summer in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell – daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell – was arrested July 2 in New Hampshire on charges she recruited and groomed underage girls for abuse by her then-boyfriend. Starting in at least 1994, a grand jury indictment alleges, she “enticed and groomed multiple minor girls to engage in sex acts with Jeffrey Epstein, through a variety of means and methods.”
Deutsche Bank expressed regret for its relationship with Epstein in a statement. “Our reputation is our most valuable asset and we deeply regret our association with Epstein,” said company spokesman, Daniel Hunter.
The German bank’s ties to Epstein began in 2013, years after the billionaire pleaded guilty to two prostitution charges in Florida, according to the consent decree filed by the New York regulator. Deutsche Bank knew about Epstein’s past, classifying him as a “high-risk” client, but also considered the relationship potentially lucrative – $100 million to $300 million in revenue over time.
In 2014, the bank’s anti-financial crime unit grew concerned about Epstein after new reports emerged about his alleged victims. Deutsche Bank executives met with Epstein at his New York home and asked about the veracity of the allegations.
The bank ultimately decided to continue doing business with Epstein but established new safeguards, which were largely ignored, according to the consent decree.
“The Bank’s fundamental failure was that . . .[it] failed to scrutinize the activity in the accounts for the kinds of activity that were obviously implicated by Mr. Epstein’s past,” the consent decree says.
Deutsche Bank processed more than $7 million in settlement payments to Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators, as well as more than $800,000 in suspicious cash withdrawals, the regulator said. But it didn’t inquire or block the transactions with “named co-conspirators” or ask what Epstein was spending $200,000 per year in cash on.
Instead of monitoring his accounts for “all potential crimes and suspicious activities,” one of the bank’s anti-financial crime official, for example, simply searched the Internet to verify that transactions didn’t involve girls younger than 18.
Deutsche Bank should have known Epstein’s transactions were suspicious but suffered from “a series of procedural failures, mistakes, and sloppiness” in how it oversaw his accounts, according to a statement from the New York regulator. The bank didn’t end its relationship with Epstein until 2018, a month after the Miami Herald published damaging details about an Epstein plea deal.
“For years, Mr. Epstein’s criminal, abusive behavior was widely known, yet big institutions continued to excuse that history and lend their credibility or services for financial gain,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
Deutsche Bank said it cooperated with the investigations, spent $1 billion to improve its internal compliance systems, and tripled the size of its anti-financial crime team to 1,500. The state regulator credited the bank for its “exemplary cooperation” with investigators.
“We all have to help ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again,” Christian Sewing, the bank’s chief executive, said in a note to the company’s employees. “It is our duty and our social responsibility to ensure that our banking services are used only for legitimate purposes.”
The $150 million penalty also covered Deutsche Bank’s conduct in two money laundering cases. The New York Financial Services Department said Deutsche failed to properly monitor the activities of two foreign bank clients, Danske Estonia and the Federal Bank of the Middle East, or FBME. The bank ignored red flags in its relationships with the financial institutions, including Danske Estonia, which is at the center of one of the world’s largest money laundering schemes.
Deutsche Bank is also at the center of another high-profile, legal fight.
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees can subpoena documents related to President Donald Trump’s finances – many of which are held by Deutsche Bank, the only major lender to do business with him in recent years. The bank remains his biggest creditor, having loaned him more than $2 billion, the New York Times reported.
