| A few economic technocrats, including one who did not contest last month’s nationwide polls, are tipped to assume the finance portfolio in a fresh Yingluck cabinet. Those prominent figures, known to have handled domestic economic and financial issues while assuming their executive posts, either in the public or private sector, will be named finance minister or deputy finance minister very shortly, given Monday’s schedule for Prime Minister-designate Yingluck Shinawatra to be given royal audience by His Majesty the King.
Tirachai Puvanatnaranuban, the secretary general of the Securities & Exchange Commission and former assistant governor of the Bank of Thailand,
is said to have been offered a cabinet seat, either at first-minister level or deputy-minister level, in the finance portfolio.
The 60-year-old technocrat is viewed as an ‘outsider’ compared to two of a ruling Puea Thai Party’s elected candidates, namely Suchat Tadatamrongved and Bantoon Supakavanit. Both are also speculated to take a top post in the same Ministry of Finance, either at first-minister or deputy-minister level.
A 59-year-old Suchat is an associate professor at Ramkamhaeng University’s Faculty of Economics, a former executive of waterworks authorities, a former executive of the state-owned Bank for Agriculture & Agricultural Cooperatives and finance minister in the time of a previous premiership of Somchai Wongsawat.
A 62-year-old Bantoon is a former member of the National Telecommunications Commission after he retired as head of the Budget Bureau.
Whoever will finally be named finance minister notwithstanding, the top-priority tasks of the Ministry of Finance are to contain a double-dip recession which reportedly has occurred in the time of a previous Abhisit Vejjajiva government and to cut the corporate tax from 30 to 23% in order to stimulate investments and increase employment of people whose daily minimum wage is yet to be raised to 300 baht as promised during electoral campaigns by the Puea Thai-led government. Produced by VoiceTV |
