Thailand's Bt300-daily minimum wage to slightly affect goods prices

BANGKOK, March 22 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Internal Trade reported Thursday that Thailand's daily minimum wage rise to 300 baht, starting from early next month, will only slightly affect goods prices on the domestic market. The department's Director-General Watcharee Wimuktayon acknowledged that a latest study on Thailand's overall cost structure found labour costs only represented a tiny percentage of goods prices sold on the domestic market, or about 1-5 per cent, compared to raw materials costs which accounted for a significant portion of 70-90 percent. Watcharee assessed that the increased daily minimum wages should, instead, boost people’s purchasing power and sales of products on the domestic market; while reducing production costs per unit of goods. Watcharee said that the Thai government also plans to cut corporation tax, which will also lower production costs for local business operators, and that the study also showed a change in oil prices had only affected production costs by 0.62 per cent and transport costs by 0.44 per cent. Therefore, it should be no excuse for local manufacturers to seek the government's approval of a further rise in their product prices. Meanwhile, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra expressed her concerns over the upward trend of the country's inflation and people's costs of living, caused by the rising energy prices, telling the energy minister, prior to a meeting of the National Energy Policy Council or NEPC in Bangkok tomorrow, to maintain the government’s energy policy on gradually raising the prices of liquefied petroleum (LPG) and natural gas for vehicles (NGV) monthly and freezing cooking gas prices until the end of this year. (TNA)