At the same time, the introduction of the Inheritance Tax Act and the Land and Building Tax Bill will augment prudent spending by expanding the government’s ability in revenue collection. These laws will ensure a better tax structure to deal with future liabilities, promote greater fiscal balance as well as reduce wealth inequality. As for the Bank of Thailand, we play an important role in ensuring stability in the financial system. The experience of the Global Financial Crisis taught us an important lesson of a timely and efficient crisis management. In this regard, we have proposed an amendment to the Bank of Thailand Act to equip the Bank of Thailand with a broader set of resolution mechanism and enhanced safety nets in the financial system in time of systemic crisis. Ladies and gentlemen, my discussion today regarding recent and upcoming laws provides a snapshot of the legal framework to support our goal of sustainable growth. In the meantime, while one must accept that there will be many challenges ahead, particularly implementation issues, these new laws will at least set forth a necessary path for Thailand to move forward – a path I believe must be complemented by a firm policy direction. This leads to the last part of my talk, which I will focus on the Bank of Thailand’s policy direction and initiatives to support the country’s reform efforts. We are now at the onset of the third phase of the Financial Sector Master Plan (FSMP III), spanning over 2016 – 2020.
This phase focuses on making the financial sector even more competitive, more inclusive, with improved regional connectivity and greater sustainability. All of this is to serve the diverse needs from fast changing technology as well as to support rising trade, investment, and financial linkages in the region. This leads to two themes that I want to highlight, namely digitization and regionalization. 4 Figure as of November 2016. Source: PDMO and NESDB  6  First, digitization has geared many countries towards less costly cash transactions, which benefit everyone. The concept of “financial services anywhere, anytime” cannot be achieved without developing the necessary infrastructure that fosters more efficient as well as safer electronic transactions. Successful implementation will lower transaction costs for businesses as well as for the banking sector. The Bank of Thailand and the Ministry of Finance have initiated the National e-Payment Master Plan to support this digitization trend. The plan consists of five parts aiming at (1) promoting a fast payment system, or PromptPay, at very low costs; (2) advocating the widely use of electronic debit cards; (3) developing an efficient e-Tax system; (4) improving the Government e-Payment System to make all government’s payment especially welfare transfers electronic; and lastly, creating greater e-Payment literacy. It is important to note that the benefit of e-Payment extends beyond lowering transaction cost; it can also encourage payment transparency, which limits potential leakages and corruption in the payment process and provide e-commerce opportunities for SMEs.