The State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo) wants loss-making state enterprises to submit business rehabilitation plans by the end of this month as part of the junta's efforts to boost their efficiency.
Kulit: Promoting greater efficiency
Loss-making state agencies include the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand.
The SRT and BMTA have the highest liabilities of all state enterprises.
As of March 31, the SRT alone was saddled with 111 billion baht worth of debt, up by 31.7% from a year before, while its return on assets (ROA) and net profit margin were -7% and -47.9%, respectively.
The BMTA shouldered debt of 87.2 billion baht at the end of March, up by 0.5%, with ROA and net profit margin slumping to -19% and -61.2%, respectively.
Kulit Sombatsiri, Sepo's newly appointed director-general, said his agency would also ask each state enterprise to review their direction and determine whether it was on the right track or needed revision and improve their corporate governance (CG).
Each state agency must map out short- and medium-term directions, propose solutions to their current problems, sharpen their competitiveness and reduce inequalities, he said.
State enterprises may be required to apply World Bank or Japan International Cooperation Agency standards, particularly for bid winners and bidding information disclosure in the procurement process, Mr Kulit said.
He said Sepo also planned to improve the state enterprise supervision system over the next three months.
Improving working efficiency and CG and eliminating inappropriate perks and allowances for board members and improving CG improvement are priorities for the National Council for Peace and Order.
The junta began its state enterprise overhaul plan by scrapping the annual free flight allowance for Thai Airways International board members.
Members of other boards have resigned to allow the junta to overhaul their state agencies.
To push state enterprises to follow their proposed plans, Sepo will offer them incentives, he said.