FTI wants Test & Go scheme scrapped, subsidies for fuel
The president of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) on Thursday called on the government to scrap the Test & Go scheme that restricts tourism and subsidise fuel prices to shore up the Thai Industries Sentiment Index.
FTI president Suphan Mongkolsuthee said the Omicron variant that led to restrictions to tourism and other business activities and rising costs due to soaring fuel prices have severely affected the Thai Industries Sentiment Index (TISI).
The TISI for February fell from 88.0 in January to 86.7, he said.
He said the government should boost the tourism atmosphere by scrapping the Test & Go scheme and allow foreign tourists to visit simply by showing their Covid-19 vaccine certificate.
The Test & Go scheme requires tourists, who have been fully vaccinated, to undergo an RT-PCR test on the day of arrival and have an antigen kit test on the fifth day apart from showing another RT-PCR negative result 72 hours before boarding the plane.
Suphan said the government should simply set up a system for monitoring fully vaccinated tourists when they are in the country.
Relaxing the conditions will boost the atmosphere for tourists and will also boost the TISI, he said.
At the same time, the government should step up measures to deal with surging new cases of Omicron infections, such as stocking enough medicine, arranging enough hospital beds to care for patients with severe symptoms, improve the home isolation system as well as prepare more field hospitals and waiting or isolation centres for Covid patients.
Suphan said the government should also take steps to maintain the price of fuel and gas as well as get the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to maintain the FT (float time) cost factor for calculating power fees.
He said these measures were necessary to prevent an increase in manufacturing costs for the industrial sector.
The FTI also called on the government to set up a joint state-private committee to monitor and assess the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war so that timely measures could mitigate the impact on business operators.
Suphan said the FTI has found that all factors for calculating the TISI had dropped, including purchase orders, volume of sale, manufacturing quantity, operation costs and revenue of business operators.
The FTI had surveyed 1,242 manufacturers in 45 industries in February and found that the fuel cost was a cause of concern to 75.2 per cent of respondents.
He said 68.5 per cent of them were concerned about the Covid-19 situation, 56.8 per cent about the domestic economy, 52.3 per cent by the global economy, 48.3 per cent by the exchange rate, 45.5 per cent by the political situation and 45.6 per cent by the high interest rates. Each respondent was allowed to cite more than one factor of concern.
The FTI predicts the TISI index in three months would rise to 97.1, Suphan said.
