The cabinet meeting on Tuesday 2, December 2009 has come to the following decision:
The cabinet approved the criteria for the Office of Permanent Secretary to the Office of Prime Minister's funding of Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) in settling its disputes, for it is implied by article 57 of the 2008 Public Broadcasting Act, as proposed by the Office of Permanent Secretary to the Office of Prime Minister.
1. TPBS is obliged to give financial supports to the operation of public broadcaster, the amount of the financial support is based on the fee set by the table at the end of the civil law code and the compensation to the court arbitration. It is also responsible for the cost of proceeding of court arbitration according to the institution of the arbitrator.
2. In case that there is a change to the fee published in the new civil law code, the new fee must be applicable to TPBS, which is supported by the Office of Permanent Secretary to the Office of Prime Minister.
3. In case there are other costs ordered by the court arbitration, or the Alternative Dispute Resolution Office issues a final ruling, or the court ruling orders TPBS to pay other than no.1 and no.2, the Office of Permanent Secretary to the Office of Prime Minister has to give financial supports to TPBS as well.
4. TPBS is responsible for the fee and other charges the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Office of the Prime Minister notified within the time-frame set by the court arbitration or the court itself.
The cabinet approved in principle the Ministry of Finance's draft of the announcement on both exemption and reduction of tariff for the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, as proposed by the Ministry of Finance, and the draft and the draft of supplement of the ministerial announcement considered by the cabinet have been forwarded to the draft legal scrutiny committee and were authorised to proceed.
Background Fact
The Ministry of Finance proposed that:
1. At the meeting discussing the preparation to enforce the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement on November 18, 2009, at the Department of Trade Negotiations, it was reported that on November 2,2009, Australia, New Zealand, and 5 of the ASEAN nations, Brunei, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam have notified Thailand that they have proceeded with the essential requirements in order to enforce the AANZFTA agreement by January 1, 2010, and the meeting at the Department of Trade Negotiations has set a deadline for Thailand to enforce the agreement no later than March 15, 2010, and Thailand has to notify other signatories of the agreement in writing by January 14, 2010, at the latest.
2. The ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement categorises goods eligible for tariff reduction into four groups.
2.1. Normal Track: tariff will be gradually reduced to 0% by 2013.
2.2. Sensitive Track 1: tariff will be gradually reduced to 0% by 2020.
2.3. Sensitive Track 2: tariff will be maintained until 2019 and then reduced to 0% or continued to maintain in 2020.
2.4. Quota-imposed goods: no tariff obligation.
Synopsis of the Draft of the Ministerial Announcement
1. Exempt and reduce the tariff for goods under part 2 of the 1987 royal enactment on tariff limit which has been amended by the fourth royal enactment on tariff limit of 2006 and the Ministry of Finance's announcement on the cancellation, addition, and amendment of the limit on import tariff of goods under part 2 of the 1987 royal enactment on tariff limit, signed on June 18, 2008, for goods originated from ASEAN members, Australia, and New Zealand.
2. Set the criteria and conditions for the exemption and reduction of tariff on goods originated from ASEAN members, Australia, and New Zealand.
3. Require approximately the goods under 5,955 sub-categories (about 72% of all categories) to subject with 0% tariff rate while approximately 2,248 categories are subjected to tariff rates ranging from 1% to 60%, with 97 categories (1.17% of all categories) ineligible to tariff rate cut.
The cabinet approved budget for 2009 annual expenses from central budget, the government's emergency or necessary expense fund. The approved budget will be used to help farmers affected by natural disaster during 2009 in 5 provinces, Nakorn Ratchasima, Supanburi, Nong Khai, Phang Nga, and Sukhothai, and the fund, totaled 61,955,713 Baht, will be paid to the farmers via Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, as proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative.
The cabinet approved the committee on wage's announcement regarding minimum wage (no.3), signed on December 25, 2009, as proposed by the Ministry of Labour, and it has forwarded the announcement to the Office of Secretariat to the Prime Minister so that it can be published in the Royal Gazette. It should be noted that the cabinet noted that there were 5 provinces that were not given a raise in minimum wage, namely, Mae Hong Son, Sukhothai, Chiang Rai, Petchabun, Uthai Thani, and the cabinet asked the Ministry of Labour to review the decision according to the procedure once more.
Synopsis
The Minister of Labour reported that:
1. Since the current economic situation is rapidly changing and, even though the government has been implementing measures to reduce the people's expenses, the price of essential consumer goods for workforces is still considered to be high. The Minister of Labour, therefore, assigned the Bangkok minimum wage sub-committee and minimum wage sub-committees from 75 provinces to consider whether the level of minimum wage is appropriate or not.
2. The Ministry of Labour has received a report from the 17th committee on wages which considered the proposal for minimum wage for 2010 from the Bangkok minimum wage sub-committee and minimum wage sub-committees from 75 provinces. The proposal was reviewed and added additional opinions from the academic and review sub-committee. The wage committee factored in information required by the 1998 Labour Protection Act and its amendment (no.3) in 2008., in considering the view of from sub-committees, representative from employers, representatives from employees, central and local government representatives, and labour organisations. The committee , unanimously, resolved to raised the minimum wage for 71 provinces, including Bangkok, while maintain it in 5 provinces as they did not ask for the raise. The raise will come into effect on January 1, 2009, as announced by the wage committee's announcement regarding minimum wage (no.3), signed on December 25, 2009.
3. In considering the proposal, the concepts applied are:
3.1. Minimum wage means a wage that is sufficient for an unskilled worker to live on according to the local economic and social conditions.
3.2. Unskilled worker traditionally was regarded as a worker with no more than Mattayom 6 academic credential, regardless of the duration since graduation, and without work experience or with a limited work experience, more than one year in one's old and current employments. The current committee has resolved to redefine the word "unskilled worker" as "skill developing worker", for the word unskilled tends to convey a negativity to entry workforce, suggesting that they cannot develop their skills or themselves. In fact, they are definitely capable of self-development through their hard work, dedication and willingness to learn.
3.3. Minimum wage raise aims to protect and be a guarantee for income earners to entry level workers, but there are still many who have worked for more than one year yet are paid with minimum wage still. Approximately, there are 2 million workers who are in this condition.
The cabinet approved in principle the financial supports for SEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, as proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As for the budget for the expenses in 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been authorised to negotiate in detail with the Budget Office in the future.
Measures and Direction for Speeding Up and Monitoring the Spending Under "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" 2012 (149,999.8371 million Baht)
The cabinet approved measures and direction for speeding up and monitoring Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" 2012 (149,999.8371 million Baht). According to the resolution of the government spending under budget fast track committee, the Ministry of Finance proposed the following.
1. Set a spending goal with a minimum of 100% of the all approved plans under 2010 budget.
2. Assign agencies to send the information regarding the request for budget allocation to the budget office for consideration by February 23, 2010. Likewise, the budget office will have to decide on the request within 15 days, and the approved plan must sign contract by April 8, 2010.
3. Assign agencies receiving budget under "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" investment programme to document the work plan, terms, and financial installments as defined by the Ministry of Finance. They must also send the monthly or quarterly progress report according to the work plan, terms, and financial installments, which will be used for the decision made for speeding up of spending and to ensure that the project proceeds according to its objective.
4. Use the cabinet's rate of spending under "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" investment programme as benchmark for agency's confirmation.
5. Assign ministers whose agencies are to receive budget from "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" investment programme to strictly follow the work plan and spending plan.
--Cabinet Meeting (Abhisit Vejjajiva) December 29, 2009--