Cabinet approves minimum daily wage increments of 5-22 baht

BANGKOK, Jan 31 (TNA) -- The cabinet acknowledged the proposal from the Labour Ministry to raise the minimum daily wage by 5-22 baht on April 1 while the prime minister ordered control on goods prices. Nathaporn Jatusripitak, advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office Minister, said the wage would rise to 308-330 baht a day and relevant governmental organisations introduced measures to help cushion impacts on small and medium-sized enterprises. Large-scaled businesses should be able to cope, he said. Mr Nathaporn said the Finance Ministry allows SMEs to deduct 1.15 times of their daily wage payment from their taxable income from April 1 to Dec 31. The Industry Ministry together with educational and financial institutions will help SMEs enhance their productivity in the next three years. The ministry expects the wage hike will raise SMEs’ costs by 0.5-1% and it will spend 5 billion baht on the task. The project initially covers 25 big provinces and targets 100 SMEs in each province. The Board of Investment gives promotional privileges including tax incentives for SMEs’ acquisition of machines to replace labour, their human resource development and their investment in internet and big data usage. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered governmental organisations to prevent unreasonable increase in product prices to protect consumers. (TNA)