Planned policy good for short and long term
Economists and businesses have confidence that the economic policy that will be proposed to the National Legislative Assembly today will cover all the country's economic problems, especially tax reform, for both the short and long terms.
Nada Chunsom, dean of the School of Development Economics of the National Institute of Development Administration, said yesterday that Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha’s economic policies reflected that the government took all problems into consideration. Its urgent six-pronged economic stimulus measures also reflect that the military-led administration is moving in the right direction.
Prayuth sees clearly that short-term economic stimulus is needed, especially quick disbursement of the 2014 fiscal budget and the budget of the first quarter of fiscal 2015, to boost the economy next year, Nada said. The government’s measures concerning the increase of people’s incomes and the control of fiscal expenditures are what people have expected, especially the planned implementation of tax reform, she claimed.
The government should also issue the law to create the framework to ensure fiscal sustainability.
Professor Sakon Varanyuwatana, dean of economics at Thammasat University, said he was satisfied with the military government’s economic policy. If this government can successfully introduce the long-awaited inheritance and real-estate taxes within its term, this would bring a great deal of benefit to the country, he said.
Continuity of the policy’s implementation is a concern, as this government will supposedly have a term of only a year, or year and a half. The Prayuth administration should set up the country’s strategies and announce them as part of the national agenda, he said.
Santi Kiranand, president of Tris Rating, said the new government’s policies did not concentrate on stimulating the economy, since only one of the core policies was truly related to the economy. There needs to be more clarity in what the military-led government intends to do with economic policies, he said.
"The new government does not concentrate on stimulating the economy, which is one characteristic of a government that was not elected, because it is concentrating more on fixing the harder issues. "Economic problems are not hard to solve if the government pays more attention to them, and Thailand has a strong economic foundation. All we have to do is get rid of corruption," he said.
"I want more clarity in what the government is going to do about the economy and not just talk. It has to lay down a long-term strategy to provide some sort of momentum," Santi said.
