After Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha led the the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to seize control of the country on May 22, 2014, the coup's theme song was released shortly after, stating his promises to "return happiness" to Thai people through economic, social and politics reform schemes.
Tax reform
Even though tax reform has been among the military regime's top priorities, progress has been slow as the new and revised taxes have been fined-tuned to reduce opposition and gain public acceptance.
A tax code overhaul is a means of redistributing income and cultivating social equality, boosting the tax revenue stream in sustainable manner, restructuring the government's revenue sources towards taxes on assets and enhancing the country's competitiveness.
Government revenue at the moment relies largely on income taxes -- personal and corporate -- along with consumer taxes, particularly value-added tax (VAT), while taxes on asset value generate a low revenue stream.
Inheritance and gift tax, and the land and buildings tax are among those proposed to achieve the regime's objectives.
The inheritance and gift tax came into effect early this year even though the tax rates were watered down by the National Legislative Assembly.
But the personal income tax overhaul is one of the military government's achievements.
The cabinet last month approved a change in the personal income tax structure, which raised caps on personal and expense allowances, adjusted rates and some income bands with the aim of lowering the tax burden on individual taxpayers, and sharpening the country's competitiveness in attracting foreign direct investment.
The government has also successfully amended the corporate income tax rate, with its net burden being the second lowest in Asean after Singapore which has a rate of 17%.
One of the regime's toughest tasks concerned the land and buildings tax, which has not been attempted since 1932.
However it has hit a snag, though it was the second tax to be pushed by the Finance Ministry in 2014 after the inheritance tax.
To accomplish the mission, the regime is likely to compromise on the latest version by raising the minimum value of property subject to taxes to prevent low-income earners from shouldering the tax burden. The land and buildings tax is set to come into effect in 2017 once approved.
Also, the NCPO's plan to restructure the excise tax is one its most ambitious goals.
Even though the new vehicle excise tax, which is based on carbon dioxide emissions rather than engine size as in the past, was implemented in January, the Excise Department still has much more to do.
The department is studying a plan to impose higher taxes on fuel, alcohol, beer, tobacco and telecommunications services with the aim of doubling revenue to almost one trillion baht by 2027.
State enterprise reform
State enterprise reform has been highlighted as one of the top priorities of the military regime, with the aim of reducing politicians' influence to restore order in the country, creating a buffer to prevent politicians from exploiting state enterprises in pushing populist campaign pledges amd raising efficiency to boost revenue and scale down burdensome budgets.
State enterprises in Thailand have long been used as a political tool. Politicians have always exploited profit-making state enterprises for their own benefit to fulfil pork-barrel policies.
Some politicians have also been known to offer seats on the boards of state enterprises and top executive posts as rewards to sidekicks and state officials for their assistance.
After the coup, the State Enterprise Policy Commission or "superboard" was appointed to overhaul the structure of state enterprises.
Even though all superboard members are highly respected in their fields, the progress of their work has been slow.
The key to the success of state enterprise reform is to push through a bill to facilitate reforms into law, State Enterprise Policy Office (SEPO) director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas said.
The bill's main issues are to separate the roles of regulators, policymakers and owners to prevent politicians intervening over the long run.
The superboard is the main team responsible for mapping out state enterprises' strategy and setting up a national holding company to which the assets of 12 corporatised state enterprises such as PTT Plc, Thai Airways International Plc and Krungthai Bank will be transferred.
The national holding company is also fully authorised to map out a strategy for these state enterprises regarding which stakes will not be transferred to the holding firm.
After being postponed once, the bill is expected to be placed before the cabinet for consideration soon.
National e-payment scheme
The countdown begins for the launch of the national e-payment system, which will allow Thais, including those who do not have bank deposit accounts, to make electronic payments for goods and services for as little as 20 baht or transfer money.
The system is expected to cause a big shake-up in the payment landscape by transforming Thailand from a cash-based society to a cash-free economy.
The massive cost of printing banknotes and cheques and transporting cash worth 70 billion baht every year will be reduced drastically while allowing people easier access to formal financial services.
Ultimately, it will enhance tax-collection efficiency, boost the country's tax revenue and provide direct assistance and welfare to low-income earners and the elderly while narrowing the income gap.
Low-income housing scheme
Enabling low-income households to be able to afford their own homes by providing 30-year leases has been high on the government's agenda. The NCPO hopes to reduce social inequality and bring back harmony and unity to the politically polarised country with this move.
The scheme offers low-income earners the chance to have their own homes in two ways: one is to offer a low interest rate on loans and the other is to offer them cheap prices for housing.
The soft loan scheme has been processed quickly through state financial institutions but the low-cost homes project is still being worked on.
Energy reform
The NCPO's energy reform kicked off shortly after the military government was set up.
Without hesitation, the military government slashed the decade-long energy price distortion caused by previous elected governments which had subsidised energy products heavily.
That meant the cancellation of a 10-billion-baht yearly subsidy for cooking gas, a 100-billion-baht subsidy a year for capping diesel prices and a 20-billion-baht yearly subsidy on compressed natural gas.
Energy expert Manoon Siriwan estimates the total costs of such subsidies, aimed at gaining popularity among voters, reached 600 billion baht between 2008 and 2013.
Moreover, the country's energy policymakers are due to draft a new petroleum act to prevent politicians from intervening or using state oil funds to appease voters.
Investment acceleration
The bureaucratic processes to acquire factory operating licences has been one of the country's major weaknesses in the eyes of investors. Once the military government stepped in, it took up this issue as one of the first to address.
The most successful has been its shortening of the time to acquire factory operation licences (known as the Ror Ngor 4 licence) from 90 to 30 days.
The move is meant to encourage foreign investors who have been already granted investment licences to start making real investments to help drive the economy.
Small and medium enterprises development
SMEs should be the real backbone of the economy as they account for more than 90% of all business enterprises in the country, but they suffer from a weak system.
In the two years under the regime, several measures to support SMEs have been imposed such as soft loans, tax exemption for micro SMEs and numerous roadshows and business-matching events.
The military government has also adjusted the role of the key think tank, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion, to be more flexible in collaborating with other organisations.
However, these measures have had a very small impact in boosting sales and exports as purchasing power both in Thailand and overseas markets has remained weak.
Special economic zones
The government has set out to allocate certain areas of land along the border as special economic zones (SEZs) with industrial areas and well as some trading zones in order to accelerate investment and exports in the remote areas.
Five SEZs have been initially set for the five provinces of Tak, Trat, Mukdahan, Sa Kaeo, Nong Khai and Songkhla.
However, the plan has progressed very slowly as there is some strong opposition in certain areas to the idea of setting up such industrial zones in their home towns.
Besides, the government policy to allocate certain amounts of land for industrial use has spurred land price speculation, making the cost of investment higher than expected and deterring new investors.
Tourism
Tourism has been considered by the NCPO as a major engine for the Thai economy as exports have suffered a big slump. The Tourism and Sports Ministry set a three-year goal to boost tourism revenue to 2.5 trillion baht in 2017 from 1.8 trillion baht in 2014.
Also, the government has set a target to improve the competitiveness of Thai tourism as the country faces some tough rivalry from other Asean countries.
The ministry targets to increase total tourism revenue to 2.41 trillion baht and foreign tourist arrivals to over 30 million this year. If the government is able to achieve its 2016 target, it is expected to pave a relatively easy path to its 2017 revenue target.
Rice-pledging scheme scrapped
The rice-pledging scheme has also been among the priorities to be addressed by the NCPO as it considers the scheme to be the biggest mistake of the last government, riddled with corruption and causing losses of more than 500 billion baht.
Shortly after taking office, the regime acted as a hero by seeking funds to pay the pledging money owed to almost a million farmers and scrapped the scheme a few weeks later. Then it put in place other measures aimed at providing them with easier access to capital through soft loans.
The regime also vowed to carry out zoning and rice farmland consolidation to cut farmers' production costs and supply high-quality strains as well as set up an independent body free from political interference to continue with strategic rice plans.
The rice scheme, which was launched in October 2011, has purchased 43 million tonnes of paddy from farmers, but more than half of the total stock has been found to be rotten.
The military government has kept itself abreast of the rice scandal probes and vowed to speed up rice sales to prevent further losses.
Ease of doing business
In 2015, the World Bank's ease of doing business report that gave Thailand a lower ranking than countries worldwide alarmed the military government.
To address the issue, amendments to the Trade Competition Act, Foreign Business Act and Intellectual Property Act have begun. But the amendments to Trade Competition Act seem to have made the most progress, with the draft amendments now pending vetting by the Council of State.
The Foreign Business Act has been amended rapidly. Also amendments of the Copyright Act came into force in August last year, replacing the original one which was in use for 21 years to better protect copyright holders.
Digital economy
The military government pledged support for transforming Thailand into a digital economy, or "Digital Thailand", with the ultimate goal of springing Thailand from the middle-income trap by 2020.
This is not an easy task. Even though the government has implemented a series of master plans for the development of infrastructure, a new law is needed as well to facilitate these efforts. Surprisingly, it has made tremendous progress in a few areas.
For instance, the construction of a national broadband network that aims to see the whole country connected by mid-2017 is almost complete.
A cost-reduction scheme and tax incentives will soon be ready to support start-up companies and venture capitals in Thailand to accelerate innovation in order to enhance the capacity of the country's start-up ecosystem as well as help expansion into other Asean countries.
The government is also moving towards a new economy model, the so-called Thailand 4.0, as part of the state's policy to promote the country as Asean's digital hub by 2020.
This article is the sixth in a seven-part series on the second anniversary since the National Council for Peace and Order seized power on May 22, 2014.