Fewer brokerage reps to sit on ‘corporatised’ SET’s board

The SET’s Bt8-billion fund for capital-market development will be also put under the management of a committee to be established by the Finance Ministry. 

The changes are part of the SET’s corporatisation after the Finance Ministry a few months ago wanted to find ways to make the bourse more efficient and independent. 

Rapee said the number of SET board members would remain 11, but six would be persons with certain selected credentials and four would be representatives from brokerage firms. The 11th member is the chairman. 

 

Two seats 

Previously, there was a report that brokerages would have only two seats under the SET’s new structure. 

Rapee said that after its corporatisation, the SET would be |subject to corporate income tax the same as other private companies.

The stock exchange, which was set up as a non-profit organisation decades ago, has been excused from corporate income tax ever since. However, SET president Kesara Manchusree said on Tuesday that the organisation had been informed by the Finance Ministry that it would have to pay corporate income tax like other private entities, and she said it was willing to do so. 

She added that all of the bourse’s subsidiaries had been established as private companies subject to corporate income tax. 

To endorse the SET’s new structure, the SEC has drafted an amendment of the Securities |and Exchange Act 1992, Rapee said. 

“The SEC recently submitted the draft amendment to the Finance Ministry for consideration before being proposed to the Council of State and then the National Legislative Assembly,” he said.

He added that the SET would be required to make a yearly contribution to the capital-market development fund in the same way that state-owned enterprises are required to contribute some of their profits to the Finance Ministry. However, details of the percentage of its profits to be contributed would be determined later.