PTT Boss looms large at launch
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Last Thursday's launch of "(Energy) Between the Line" |by Anik Amranand, a former politician and energy company executive, was one of the |most attended book-unveiling events ever held at the Stock Exchange of Thailand's Maruey Library.
Among the VIP guests were Sanoh Unakul, Korn Chatikavanij, Tirapot Vajrabhaya, and Anik’s husband Piyasvasti Amranand chairman of energy conglomerate PTT.
Anik said she decided to write the book because she felt society was quarrelling about national energy issues based on incomplete information.
She asked readers to open their hearts before opening the book and carefully consider the facts and figures she provided.
A Now 26 TV moderator asked her if she had found it difficult to convince readers to open their hearts first?
Anik paused and answered: “Frankly speaking, my name is not quite an issue, but when they saw my surname …” That drew smiles from the audiences.
Piyasvasti is known as a straight talker and not the most popular figure in the eyes of some non-governmental organisation activists.
He joked that he was a research assistant for Anik’s first pocketbook. Like Anik’s weekly article in Krungthep Turakij , which he screens before they are published, Piyasvasti read the draft of the book and provided her with information.
“But I don’t 100% agree to everything she wrote in the book,” said Piyasvasti, “because she is being too much of a politician.”
That was further conformation that Piyasvasti doesn’t mince his words.
The PTT chairman is a famous advocator of liberalisation and free market principals in energy policy, and politicians often love to exploit that fact in the hope of increasing their popularity among voters.
TRA Confusion
Reporters attending the |Thai Retailers Association’s annual press conference last week were puzzled over why TRA president Jariya Chirathivat spoke about only four of the association’s recommendations to the government when its statement distributed to |the press had six recommendations.
The recommendations omitted at the last minute were a cut to the value-added tax to help stimulating flagging domestic consumption and tax relief proposals.
When asked about the missing recommendations, TRA director Chatrchai Tuongratanaphan told reporters that the proposals were based on only his opinion.
“The other directors did not agree because the VAT cut would affect government revenues and its inflation target,” he said.
