The cabinet met on Wednesday, December 25, 2013. Some of the decisions are as follows:
Following suggestions from Ministry of Finance, the Cabinet:
1. Agreed with 1-year extension of timeframe for financial aid program for business owners in 3 southern border provinces (Soft Loan), starting January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, with the total budget of 25,000 million Baht. The Government Savings Bank (GSB) is to continue running this program using the same criteria and conditions approved by the Cabinet on June 2, 2013.
2. Approved compensatory budget for interest spread to GSB according to the previous criteria for the total amount of 992.50 million Baht. The disbursement will be based on actual cost.
Gist
Ministry of Finance reported that
1. Financial aid program for business owners in 3 southern provinces has been implementing since 2005 in the form of soft loan. It was implemented by the Bank of Thailand during 2005-2010 without the Government having to pay for compensation. During the years 2010-2013, this program has been implemented by Government Savings Bank, and the Government has to compensate for the interest spread. The program is aimed to relieve business owners’ interest burden and to boost trade and investment in the 3 southern border provinces, as well as to prevent migration of the local people. However, as insurgency in the three provinces has not been recovered to normalcy, financial institutions joining the program also want the extension of the program. Thus, in order to avoid any impact on business owners in the 3 southern border provinces, Ministry of Finance proposed to the Cabinet an approval of 1-year extension for the financial aid program for business owners in the 3 southern border provinces (Soft Loan), starting from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014.
The Cabinet acknowledged integrated plan for prevention and reduction of road accidents during 2014 New Year season proposed by the Interior Minister, in his capacity as Chairman and Director of Road Safety Directing Center.
Gist of Integrated plan for prevention and reduction of road accidents during 2014 New Year season:
1. Title of the road accident prevention and reduction campaign is “Safe Travel during New Year, Reduce Accidents”.
2. Implementation period is between December 27, 2013 and January 2, 2014.
3. There are 5 measures to prevent and reduce road accidents: 1) measure on management 2) measure on safe road and traffic 3) measure on safe vehicles 4) measure on safe road and car users and 5) measure on responses after accidents.
The Cabinet approved draft Ministry of Finance Announcement excise tax deduction (no…) following suggestions from Ministry of Finance.
Ministry of Finance proposed to the Cabinet that,
As the Government’s measure on excise tax reduction for diesel oil will be expired on December 30, 2013 and global diesel price is still high, increasing of diesel oil tax during this time will affect people’s expense a great deal. Thus, to help with the relief of people’s cost of living, one-month extension of excise tax deduction period for diesel oil containing sulfur content less than 0.005 per cent in rate of 0.005 baht per liter and for diesel oil containing fatty acid methyl esters typed biodiesel content less than 4 per cent in rate 0.005 baht per liter from January 1, 2014 - January 31, 2014 are approved.
Gist of draft announcement
This draft announcement stipulates excise tax deduction period for diesel oil containing sulfur content less than 0.005 per cent in rate of 0.005 baht per liter and for diesel oil containing fatty acid methyl esters typed biodiesel content less than 4 per cent in rate 0.005 baht per liter to be expanded for another 1 month, from January 1, 2014 - January 31, 2014.
The Cabinet acknowledged Results of the second exhibition of infrastructural development project for national future proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongpaisan.
Gist
Deputy Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongpaisan reported that
Committee on public relations for the infrastructural development project for national future held its 3/2013 meeting on December 9, 2013 to follow up on the results of “Building the Thai Future for 2020” roadshow and exhibition. Gist of outcomes as follows.
1. “Building the Thai Future for 2020” roadshow and exhibition during November 8 - December 1, 2013 took place in 5 provinces: Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Phetchaburi, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla (Hat Yai).
2. Summary of outcomes of exhibition
2.1 Number of exhibition visitors in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Phetchaburi, Chiang Mai and Nakhon Si Thammarat is 229,962 people. Exhibition in Songkhla (Hat Yai) could not occur because there were dissenters protesting against the exhibition.
2.2 Exhibition visitors were impressed by high-speed train exhibition the most.
Their opinions can be summarized as follows:
2.2.1 There should be more public relations on the exhibition that reach people in all levels.
2.2.2 There should be more staff at the exhibition.
2.2.3 Size of exhibition area should be proportional with the number of visitors.
3. Future implementation
3.1 Agreed that there should be a channel to publicize information related to national infrastructural development. Preliminarily, an official website on the country’s transportation development may be launched.
3.2 Agreed to assign Community Development Department and concerned offices to continuously support “Thai Kitchen to the World” scheme to promote local cuisine to international standard.
--Cabinet Meeting (Yingluck Shinawatra) December 25, 2013--