The election result is already out and Thailand is heading for a big policy change. As the party with most seats, the Move Forward Party will form the government. The second place-getter -- the Pheu Thai Party -- has agreed to be in the coalition. These two parties, however, have totally different views on how to run the economy.
The Move Forward Party is in favour of a welfare state model starting with levelling the playing field by diluting monopolistic power and providing more opportunities to SMEs, closing the income gap, and raising taxes on the rich to finance its social programmes.
According to their campaign, their generous welfare package would cost the government 650 billion baht a year. To finance such a package, 350 billion baht would come from budget cuts and the rest would come from new taxes which include a land tax, large corporate tax, and a wealth tax.
