Monday, 20 May 2024

Seizing the National Bank and removing the governor is not easy.

08 May 2024
55

conflict between Pheu Thai Government and Bank of Thailand Pretending to escalate When there is news that there will be a proposal to amend the Bank of Thailand law. to remove the Governor of the National Bank which does not respond to the party’s policy of reducing interest rates of Pheu Thai Like when Thaksin Shinawatra was Prime Minister, he ordered the removal of “Mom Tao” M.R. Chatumongkol Sonakul from his position as Governor of the Bank of Thailand. Because I don’t agree with Thaksin’s policies. who want to reduce interest rates to stimulate the economy, but thinking Removing the governor of the National Bank of the Pheu Thai Party today is probably not as easy as in the past because after the Thaksin Shinawatra government was seized power by Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin on September 19, 2006 and appointed Gen. Sura. Yut Chulanont, the Prime Minister of the Ministry of Finance at that time, proposed amending the old Bank of Thailand law to Bank of Thailand Act 2008 to separate political power from the National Bank. Give the Bank of Thailand freedom to conduct monetary policy. Preventing politicians from interfering in monetary policy and making it more difficult to resolve the matter of dismissing the Governor of the National Bank of the Political Party. The new Bank of Thailand law came into effect on March 4, 2008. Until today, the idea of ​​amending the Bank of Thailand law goes back to the old era. Giving political power to remove the Governor of the National Bank It probably won’t be as easy as you hope. Even though there is a majority in the House, Dr. Sangsit Piriyarangsan, Senator, former vice president of the committee considering the draft of the Bank of Thailand Act B.E. 2008, revealed that when the draft was drafted The drafters of the law want to separate the power of the political branch from the national bank. To allow the National Bank to have independence in conducting monetary policy. Then let the Finance Minister be responsible for fiscal matters. It is a principle that countries in the free world use. and is accepted throughout the world Through the drafting committee BoT Act Therefore, the law was written to prevent political parties from interfering in monetary policy. and there was an amendment to the matter of appointing the Governor of the National Bank. Previously, the government could hire someone from the Ministry of Finance to become the Governor of the Bank of Thailand. Amending the Finance Minister to set up a committee to consider selecting and amending the issue of making it more difficult for the Governor of the Bank of Thailand to vacate his position. Dr. Sangsit said that in the past, the government had power over the Governor of the Bank of Thailand. If you are not satisfied, you can change the Governor of the Bank of Thailand. Then he sent his men to sit in his place. The drafting committee saw that If it continues like this The opportunity for the National Bank to be intervened will easily occur. The heart of the current Bank of Thailand law is This makes it difficult for political parties to intervene in the national bank. There is also news that The Pheu Thai government plans to transfer the existing recovery fund debt of 600 billion baht to the Bank of Thailand. to reduce public debt There will be room to borrow more money. But in this matter, Dr. Prasarn Trairat Worakul The former Governor of the Bank of Thailand revealed that during the Tom Yum Kung crisis in 1997, the Fund went in to support Krung Thai Bank By acquiring Krungthai Bank shares from a debt of 300 billion baht, if the fund’s debt is transferred out must sell 300 billion baht back to the Ministry of Finance, like swapping stocks with the Ministry of Finance It has no effect on reducing public debt. It is a transfer of the debt management account only. Interest reduction that the Pheu Thai government wants Doctor Prasarn gave the opinion that the majority considered maintaining interest rates Because in the future, we are not sure how much more money the government will come out to borrow. in the digital wallet project If you borrow a lot It may affect money market interest rates to increase. If interest rates are reduced, financial costs will increase. Money markets can be confusing. and may view that the effectiveness of monetary policy is not as good as it should be Today, Thai interest rates are 2.5% and the United States are more than 5%. There is quite a difference between them and the Fed sees that they may maintain interest rates for several more months. Therefore, we have to give weight mainly to the domestic economy. The more you go, the lower the interest rate. The more capital will flow out, not flow in. The reduction in interest rates will only worsen the problem. Even without reducing interest rates today Funds flow out every day. Go find different profits in other markets instead. “Wind Change direction.” Click to read the column. Additional “Thailand Notes”