"Ministry of Finance"

The government is now trying to balance both epidemic prevention and economic measures and if the epidemic situation worsens, at least THB250 billion will be borrowed under a special loan decree to tackle the crisis, Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Thursday.

The Thai economy should grow by 3.5 to 4.5 per cent next year with the government’s planned spending of about 1 trillion baht, Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Monday.

The Excise Department has been instructed to find a way to impose a “salt tax” on the food industry so sodium levels in ready-to-eat food can be controlled and subsequent health problems avoided.

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved an amendment to a Finance Ministry regulation relating to the foreign currency-exchange business under the Exchange Control Act.

The first lot of savings bonds, “Om Pai Duay Kan” (Let’s Save Together), worth 10 billion baht were snapped up within 12 minutes of being released by the Finance Ministry on November 15.

Dr. Juree Vichit-Vadakan, Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Misconduct Sub-Committee of the National Anti-Corruption Administration Centre (NACAC), announced an important new mechanism called The Good Governance Promotion Clinic to help prevent the misuse, abuse and corruption of the special budget expenditures authorized by the Ministry of Finance in accordance with the Emergency Decree in 2021 to remedy and restore the economy and society affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Finance Ministry has called on the Excise and Customs departments to come up with a tax rate for electric vehicles (EVs) soon, as part of Thailand’s dream to achieve zero emissions by 2065.

The economy for fiscal year 2021 is expected to grow just 1 per cent because of Covid-19 in the third quarter, Finance Ministry spokesman Pornchai Thiravej told a press conference on Thursday.

The Finance Ministry is launching new measures to support Thailand’s bid to become a regional electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing hub.

The government’s revenue collection in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2021 – October 2020 to July 2021 – was Bt1.9 trillion, lower than the estimated Bt216.8 billion, or 10.2 per cent, which is about the same level as the year before, the Finance Ministry reported on Wednesday.

The government’s latest shopping stimulus scheme got off to an underwhelming start on Monday, with only 296,003 people registering for “Ying Chai Ying Dai” (Spend More, Get More).

The Finance Ministry slashed its 2021 GDP growth forecast from 2.8 per cent to 2.3 per cent on Thursday, citing the impact of fresh Covid-19 outbreaks on the Thai economy.