February 2012 : Parliament passed constitutional draft bills Parliament passed constitutional draft bills Two finance bills ruled constitutional Cabinet approved Bt. 2.4 trillion for 2013 budget Two water management boards appointed Bt. 1.6 billion for northeastern projects PC Tablets by G-to-G from China Greens asked Ombudsman to investigate PM’s visit to Four Seasons Thai teenagers have highest pregnancy rate in Asia Off-season rice pledging starts Thailand blacklisted for money laundering Common drug prices for 3 health schemes Diesel tax reduction monthly extension Problems with taxi credit cards Same compensation for southern violence as political victims Debate over provincial women development fund Parliament passed constitutional draft bills On 25th February, Parliament passed 3 Constitutional amendment Bills submitted by the Government, Phue Thai MPs and Chart Thai Pattana MPs by 399 to 199 with 14 abstentions. This was followed by the appointment of a 45 member Committee to deliberate the bills within 30 days. Another draft was also submitted by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship but needs verification of the 60,000 endorsing voters’ signatures. The constitutional amendments seek to revise Article 291 of the 2007 Constitution and to set up a Constitutional Drafting Assembly (CDA). The revision is opposed by several groups particularly by Siam Pracha Piwat, a group led by Bunjerd Singkaneti, Dean of the Law School, at the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA). He says that the revision will lead to parliamentary dictatorship by monopolistic capitalists under the guise of democracy. On 28th February, Tul Sitthisomwong and members of the Volunteer Citizens for the Protection of the Land Network submitted a letter of intent to organize 20,000 voters to petition the Senate to impeach the 399 MPs who supported the constitutional amendments. They argued that Article 291[1] already empowered the Cabinet, MPs and Senators to revise the Constitution; therefore, the promotion of the CDA is a negligence of their duty under the Constitution. Two finance bills ruled constitutional On 22nd February, the Constitutional Court ruled that the use of governmental decrees constitutional. These decrees seek Bt.350 billion loans to finance water management projects and flood rehabilitation work and to allow the Finance Ministry to transfer Bt. 1.14 trillion debt from the Financial Institution Development Fund (FIDF) to the Bank of Thailand. The Court stated that the first decree was required immediately in order to revitalize the economy and undertake rehabilitation work in areas affected by the flood. As for the second decree, the court ruled that it was urgently needed for economic stability. During the past 15 years, the government had made repayments of Bt. 670 billion but the debt had been reduced by only 13% with the remaining principal still at Bt. 1.14 trillion. The transfer of the debt to the Bank of Thailand would give the government more borrowing abilities. Cabinet approved Bt. 2.4 trillion for 2013 budget On 22nd February, the Cabinet, meeting in Udorn Thani province, approved the 2013 budget of Bt. 2.4 trillion; income is expected at Bt.2.1 trillion producing a deficit of Bt. 300 billion. Bt. 182 billion had been earmarked for loan repayment, being Bt. 48.6 billion for principal and Bt. 134 billion for interest and fees. It is noted that the 2013 budget is Bt. 20 billion higher than 2012 even though the FIDF repayment had been transferred from the government to the Bank of Thailand. GDP in 2013 is predicted at Bt.12.544 trillion with economic growth at 4-5%. However, this is lower than 4.5-6.5% in 2012. Two water management boards appointed On 28th February, the Office of the Prime Minister appointed 2 executive boards responsible for water management and flood prevention. They are: The National Water Resources and Flood Policy Committee (NWRFPC), chaired by the Prime Minister, to formulate policies on water management, flood prevention and flood alleviation. The Water and Flood Management Board (WFMB), chaired by Science and Technology Minister, to plan and implement policies and directions of the NWRFPC. Bt. 1.6 billion for northeastern projects On 22nd February, the Cabinet also approved a budget of Bt. 1,655 million to implement 29 projects in Northeastern provinces. These projects, starting in the 2012 budget year, involve water management, tourism, medicine, public health, highway and landscape. PC Tablets by G-to-G from China On 22nd February, the Cabinet approved a budget of Bt.1,900 million to procure 860,000 tablet computers for Grade 1 pupils nationwide. The price is budgeted at Bt. 3,400, with Bt. 3,100 being for hardware and Bt. 300 for software. Three ministries: Education, ICT and Foreign Affairs are assigned to be responsible for the procurement on G-to-G basis from the Republic of China. Negotiation is assigned to the Foreign Ministry, selection of educational content to the Education Ministry and procurement and providing WIFI to schools to the ICT Ministry. The computers are to be in place and ready to use by the end of May which is the beginning of the school term. Deputy-Governor of BMA, Taya Teepsuwan, said that the authority had received a budget of Bt. 137 million and are waiting for specifications from the government. There are approximately 45,000 Grade 1 pupils in BMA schools and its education department is considering downloading 5 topics into the computers: English, mathematics, sociology, Thai and science. Teachers will be trained and WIFI provided in the schools. Greens asked Ombudsman to investigate PM visit to Four Seasons On 10th February, the Green political group submitted a letter to the Ombudsman asking him to investigate the Prime Minister on her private visit to the Four Seasons Hotel during parliamentary session on 8th February 2012. The investigation would be under Article 279 of the Constitution and the Office of the Prime Minister Regulations on Ethics of Political Office Holders of 2008. On 8th February, during parliamentary session, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra left Parliament and was seen at the Four Seasons Hotel between 14.00-16.00 hrs. She said that it was a private visit and declined to explain further. Later, the CEO of the Sansiri Real Estate Group, Setha Taweesin, admitted he and a group of businessmen had a meeting with the premier. Thai teenagers have highest pregnancy rate in Asia The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ranked Thailand the first in Asia with the highest teenage pregnancy rate and second worldwide after Africa. Suwanee Khamman, the Deputy Secretary-General of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), said that pregnancy rate amongst Thai teens rose from 13.55% in 2011 to 13.76% in 2012. This is substantially higher than the WHO standard, which stipulates 10% teenage pregnancy in all pregnancies. A special report from the Family Love Bond Project confirmed that out of all births in hospitals, the share of teenage mothers rose from 17.51% in 2010 to 18.24% in 2011 and 19.20% in 2012. Moreover, a study by the National Child Protection Committee revealed that the average age of teenage mothers is between 13 and 15 years and unplanned pregnancy of the under 15 increased by 3.1% in 2010. Asst. Prof. Tharathip Kolatat, a pediatrics doctor at Siriraj Hospital quoted the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security statistic that in 2010, there were approximately 100,000 teenage pregnancies or equivalent to 14% of all pregnancies. Off-season rice pledging starts On 22nd February, Deputy Spokesperson of the Office of the Prime Minister, Pakdiharn Himathongkham, disclosed that the Cabinet meeting in Udorn Thani agreed that off-season rice pledging season is to take place from 1st March to 15th September 2012. The pledge price of Bt. 15,000 per ton will be applicable, the same as the price of rain-rice. There will be no limit as to the total quantity and it is expected that total yield will be approximately 11.11 million tons. It is expected that Bt. 166,650 million will be spent during the season. The Director of the State Policy Department, Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Supat Aueychai, said that there were irregularities during the rain-rice pledging season between 7th October 2011 and 29th February 2012, particularly with second crop rice. The belief is that these were rice from mills’ stock, bought at Bt.10,000 baht per ton, rather than rice smuggled from neighboring countries. However, the Division of Special Investigation (DSI) sub-committee is investigating these cases and there is a temporary suspension of second crop pledging. Watcharee Wimooktayon, the Director-General of the Department of Internal Trade, said that there were reports of smuggled rice since the amount of pledged rice in some provinces was higher than what is endorsed on the certificates. She warned that if the DSI finds intentional wrongdoing, the culprit would not only be prosecuted but also banned from rice pledging programs. The rice-pledging program is one of government policies that was heavily criticized and opposed before implementation. Analysts observed that this policy encourages farmers to produce quantity rather than quality, as better quality rice takes longer to cultivate. Further, the pledged price of Bt. 15,000 per ton makes costs higher than similar rice from other countries. Thailand blacklisted for money laundering The Cabinet assigned the Council of State and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) to consider whether it is necessary to enact new laws to prevent and suppress money laundering which provides financial support to terrorism. On 17th February the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering – FATF blacklisted Thailand and 4 other countries as first priority countries to monitor financial transactions. They said that these countries lack infrastructure and resources to cope with the relatively sophisticated financial criminals operating within their countries. The other fours countries were: Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania and Ghana. Twelve countries had already been blacklisted, they are: Myanmar, Bolivia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, North Korea, Sao Tome and Principe, Syria and Turkey. Common drug prices for 3 health schemes On 21st February, four agencies responsible for health schemes: the Comptroller General’s Department, the Social Security Office, the National Health Security Office and the Public Health Financial Development Office, signed an agreement to designate common prices for medical drugs and equipments used by three public health schemes. These are the Civil Service Medical Benefit Scheme, the Social Security Scheme and the Universal Coverage Public Health Scheme. This is an initiative toward ensuring acceptable and reasonable medical supplies and services used by the three health schemes. Public Health Ministry hospitals were noted for buying higher priced medicine; under this agreement common prices will apply. The Office of the Auditor General will investigate purchases of over-priced products, and it is emphasized that civil service benefits will not be reduced under the agreement. Diesel tax reduction monthly extension On 22nd February, the Cabinet resolved to extend the diesel tax reduction for another month or from 1st to 31st March 2012. The tax reduction has been extended many times with the last being for 1st to 29th February. The reduction puts a heavy burden on the Petroleum Fund since the fund has to subsidize LPG gas at the rate of Bt. 142 million daily. At the end of February, its accumulative debt is Bt. 20,623 million with a cash balance of only Bt.2,988 million, making a total deficit of Bt. 17,635 million. Problems with taxi credit cards PTT Executive Vice-President of Natural Gas for Vehicles, Termchai Bunnag, said that Krung Thai Bank reported that in 2011, the bank issued 34,000 credit cards to taxi drivers and 10% of the cardholders failed to pay their debts. However, the bank and PTT will continue to provide more credit to reach a target of 130,000 cards. On 3rd February, the Network of Taxi Driver Cooperatives stated that taxi drivers encountered problems when using credit cards at NGV gas stations. The problems are: malfunctioning card reading machines, non-functioning computer program for discounts, and insufficient distribution heads accepting credit cards, forcing drivers to use full price heads. Properly functioning distribution heads with credit card readers automatically give a discount of Bt. 0.50 for every purchase of Bt. 9/kilogram. Same compensation for southern violence as political victims On 12th February, the Healing for the Southern Violence Victims Committee resolved to compensate each Southern violence victim at a maximum of Bt.7.5 million, which is the same rate of compensation as for those affected by political unrest. Southern violence victims are those from the following four groups: the violence at Krue Se mosque and Saba Yoi on 28th April 2004, the violence at Tak Bai and Ayr Pa Yae, those missing, abused or tortured by state officers, as well as people affected by general violence. It is expected that the resolution will be effective within 2 months. Debate over provincial women development fund A seminar on “Perspectives for Thai Women” at Thammasart University held by a network of women associations commented that since the provincial women development fund involves a budget of Bt. 7,700 million, Parliament should enact it rather than using ministerial decrees. Terms and conditions of the fund are still unclear though there are similarities with the village funds, e.g. increased debts. Studies on village funds revealed that only 10% were successful, so the establishment of the provincial women development fund should be based on more positive evidence.