Population Policy

The Fourth National Economic and Social Development Plan
 (1977-1981). Part II, Chapter 4, p.93-95.

Date:     1977-1981

Source:     Office of the Prime Minister, National Economic and Social Development Board, Bangkok, Thailand

Subject:     poverty eradication, rural, urban

In addition to tackling problems related to production efficiency, production diversification, marketing and the pricing system, the Government must deal with some other problems as well as to achieve more equitable income distribution. Guidelines for dealing with these other problems are summarised below:

4.1.1   To help farmers in the short-run and in the long-run, systematic planning is required. An overall plan should be prepared to deal with the basic problems encountered by farmers, especially the problems relating to land tenure, debts, and other legal problems concerning the agriculture law court and the Farm Rent Control Act.

4.1.2   The Labour Act should be revised so as to extend its provision to cover hired labourers in the agricultural sector, especially in the irrigated agricultural zones where there are a large number of hired labourers.

4.1.3   Social services for the benefit of the rural poor by stressing on health, out-of-school education, and rural public services should be expanded and strengthened (see detail in Chapters 6 and 7, Section 3).

Low income people in most cases do not receive adequate payments for their work. Therefore, it is necessary to revise wage rates and welfare payments in accordance with changes in labour productivity and the cost of living (see details in Chapter 7, Section 3). At the same time, the problem of labour productivity has to be given special attention, as most of the urban poor are unskilled workers in small businesses or industries or merely labourers in temporary jobs. Corrective measures to be laid down include the following:

4.2.1   Short training courses for unskilled labourers will be arranged to raise the labour efficiency and these courses may be organized at Labour Training Centres or included in the Mobile Occupational Training Project.

4.2.2   Regional job placement services will be improved to expand coverage and to provide information on changes in the labour market situation to relevant groups of people such as employers, employees, and regional job placement centres.

4.2.3  The Government will promote employment generating activities of both the public and private sectors via encouraging the use of labour-intensive methods of production and by supporting the transfer of labour from labour-surplus to labour-deficit areas.

In addition, the provision of other social services will be considered, including the following:

1. Providing public utilities to poor people at a lower rate than for other people.
2. Providing basic commodities to poor people at a lower rate than for other people, including low income housing.
3. Implementation of a social security programme (see details in Chapters 6 and 7, Section 3).

In addition to the various measures proposed in previous sections, it is necessary to use monetary and fiscal measures for alleviating problems related to income disparities. For example,:

4.3.1   The tax structure will have to be revised to help check the adverse trend in income disparities in Thailand. It may be necessary to introduce new taxes relating to inheritance and capital gains as well as revising tax rates on taxes already being collected such as the land tax.

4.3.2   Monetary and fiscal measures can be utilised to promote the types of investments which can help to alleviate problems related with income disparities such as channeling funds into low income housing projects, mass transit system, labour-intensive projects and in other areas which would result in direct benefits for the poor.