Thai authorities’ response |to Panama Papers pathetic
Re: “Panama Papers and weary regulators in Thailand”, Stoppage Time, April 13.
Tulsathit Taptim was wholly justified in blasting AMLO chief and Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam for claiming that the 16 Thais named in the Panama Papers might have “legitimate reasons” for keeping secret accounts offshore.
First, a tax haven allows people to park their funds under a legal shield of absolute secrecy and minimal taxation. The leaking of the Panama Papers is the latest example of a modern trend of disgust at a practice that allows the super-rich to take advantage of the rest of us. The US attorney-general has already had success in prising open offshore secrets in Switzerland, traditionally the favourite haven for dictators and their ill-gotten gains.
Second, the revelations contained in the Panama Papers represent only a tiny part of secret offshore finances so far untouched by legal challenge or whistleblowers. The US National Bureau of Economic Research reckons that 82 countries are tax havens, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Cook Islands and also Malaysia (Labuan), Singapore and Hong Kong.
Third, there are three reasons people park funds outside their home countries:
To avoid paying tax at home.
To protect their personal financial information.
To hide their identities in transactions made at home.
As guardians of the rule of law, AMLO’s chief and the deputy PM should not be seeking to legitimise the actions of the 16 Thais. The authorities should instead realise that concealing funds from Thai oversight offers a hiding place for anyone wishing to manipulate Thai stock-trading or corporate take-overs.
Other governments’ response to the Panama Papers leak will help curb this unfair practice, but uprooting such an entrenched system will be more difficult.
Songdej Praditsmanont
