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Revolving funds to return excess liquidity

The Cabinet yesterday gave the green light to returning the Bt30 billion surplus from revolving funds, including the farmers’ rehabilitation fund, to the treasury.

Some other funds with excess liquidity are the international trade promotion fund, car-licence registration fund, coin production fund, farmers’ assistance fund and groundwater revolving fund.

Wisudhi Srisuphan, deputy finance minister, said about Bt14 billion of revolving capital would be returned to state coffers this month and Bt14 billion from April through September.

“The remaining Bt2 billion will be negotiated with a state agency that has excess liquidity. Initially, deviations in figures or legal issues were cited [for the excess liquidity] and discussions may be needed for more details,” he said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had directed the Finance Ministry to improve the efficiency of revolving funds set up by state agencies and return the excess to the treasury, Wisudhi said.

Each year, the government has to borrow to offset the budget deficit. If any revolving fund has substantial unneeded liquidity, the money should be transferred back to the budget.

There are still 95 revolving funds around and about five may be folded for underperforming.

The ministry has asked five revolving funds to draw up one-year rehabilitation plans, and if their performances do not improve, they will be dissolved.

The revolving funds recorded total assets of Bt3 trillion. The large funds include the Social Security Fund and the Government Pension Fund.

SET seeks 1.5m investors

The Stock Exchange of Thailand aims for the number of individual investors to reach 1.5 million, trading through 2.2 million accounts, within five years.

Santi Kiranand, executive vice president, said yesterday that the target came from the SET’s plan to see daily trading pass the Bt100-billion mark in five years.

“Expanding the retail investor base will help achieve the targeted turnover.”

As of the end of January, there were 1.11 million trading accounts and 772,728 individual investors.

DMT promotion gets good response

Don Muang Tollway (DMT) expects its promotional campaign this year to attract no fewer than a million lucky-draw tickets, up 20-30 per cent from last year.

Unlike the previous years when the rewards were only 7-Cards, issued by the 7-Eleven convenience-store chain, this year’s prizes for DMT’s “Magic Smart Move” campaign include big items such as an MG 6 turbo 1.8-litre sedan and 20 iPhone 6 16-gigabyte handsets, as well as 1,000 7-Cards valued at Bt1,000 each and which can be used to pay DMT tolls.

The campaign runs until May 31.

Chaiyapat Temeeyabutr, head of DMT’s managing-director office, said the company had received more lucky-draw tickets sent back from its customers who took part in its campaign than in any of the last three years.

Besides rewarding its customers, the campaign is meant to demonstrate the company’s readiness in pioneering a joint ticketing system planned for mass transit systems in Bangkok.

Quality Houses plans 30 projects

Quality Houses plans to launch 30 new residential projects worth Bt33.01 billion this year, hoping to boost revenue by 20 per cent to Bt24 billion, chief executive officer Dr Chadchart Sittipunt told a news conference yesterday announcing the Bt10-billion luxury condominium Q Sukhumvit.

Q Sukhumvit will have 273 units starting at Bt26.3 million per unit, or an average price of Bt300,000 per square metre.