Thai government urged to provide consumers with cheap necessities

BANGKOK, May 15 (TNA) - The private sector has proposed that the Thai government produce and sell necessities with cheaper prices than those generally offered on the domestic market to local consumers to ease their burden on rising costs of living. Pornsilp Patcharintanakul, Vice Chair of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, represented the local private sector to air the proposal on Wednesday, suggesting that the 20 items of cheaper necessities which should be offered on shelves of retail stores nationwide by the government itself include toothpaste, shampoo and soap. Pornsilp said that the 20 items of necessities should be equally priced as those offered under the Ministry of Commerce's blue flag program, or about 20-30 per cent cheaper than their market prices. According to the vice chair of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, a state budget earmarked to fund the initiative should not exceed 10 billion baht annually; while the proposed idea will also provide local consumers with more substitute products. The Thai Chamber of Commerce vice chair assessed that the proposal should be more effective in helping shoulder people's rising costs of living than the government's plan to seek cooperation from local producers to freeze their goods prices or to come up with price-control measures. (TNA)