As a product of humble origins, Whichai Phochanakij understands the hardships that ordinary people endure.
The Internal Trade Department chief, whose direct task is to supervise the cost of living and the prices of goods and services, vows to strike the best balance to ensure fair trade between consumers and manufacturers.
Mr Whichai comes from a poor farming and fishing family of Songkhla Lake in Sathing Phra district, Songkhla province. He was the fourth-born of 10 brothers and sisters who lived hand-to-mouth. In childhood, he had to go fishing even in the monsoon period to raise income for tuition fees. In the hot season, he helped his father climb sugar palm trees and cut down the nuts to make palm sugar products.
During his primary education at Sathing Phra temple school, the young Whichai brought his own lunch and walked seven kilometres there and back. When the rainy season hit, life grew even more troublesome: he had to wear a loincloth and keep his "valuable" uniform in a bag as he braved the muddy rice fields between home and school. He owned only one student uniform and had to wear it all week.
Thanks to his academic excellence, Mr Whichai was able to join Mahavajiravudh Songkhla School, relying on the nearby temple. After finishing secondary school, he sought to pursue his higher education in Bangkok with a dream of being a doctor. But the dream faltered, so he chose to study economics at Ramkhamhaeng University, staying with a brother who was the warden at Klong Prem Central Prison.
He found a weekend job as a construction worker for a daily wage of 90 baht. During down periods when he lacked money to pay bus fare, he had to ride his brother's bicycle to the university.
After graduating, Mr Whichai joined the Internal Trade Department in 1983, spending four years in the Nakhon Ratchasima office overseeing the lower northeastern region. He also taught villagers and farmers how to sell their farm products and organise weekend markets.
In 1978 he moved to the Bangkok headquarters, monitoring livestock, shrimp and egg prices. He rose gradually within the Commerce Ministry until his promotion last October to director-general of the Internal Trade Department.
Mr Whichai's proudest achievements as a Commerce Ministry official are the welfare smartcard scheme, the Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops (which offer low-priced consumer goods and community-based and locally made farm products) and the ongoing attempts to stem price-gouging by private hospitals.
Mr Whichai's efforts include the welfare smartcard scheme, Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops and price controls on medicines and medical services.
Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops were part of a 41.9-billion-baht aid package approved by the cabinet in August 2017, aimed at 11.7 million low-income earners -- 5 million of whom were below the poverty line. Apart from providing low-priced consumer goods, the package also included allowances for rides on public buses and trains, as well as subsidised utility bills.
Under the aid package, the government transfers 200-300 baht a month to each welfare smartcard. Recipients earning less than 30,000 baht a year get a monthly allowance of 300 baht, while those with annual earnings of 30,000-100,000 baht receive 200 baht to buy discounted goods at Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops and other designated stores.
Each smartcard holder receives 1,500 baht a month to subsidise transport and 500 baht for inter-provincial public buses, third-class trains, and local public buses and electric trains.
The cabinet in January 2018 approved 35.7 billion baht for the second phase of the welfare scheme, aiming to help 1 million people cross the poverty line. Some 5.3 million out of the 11.4 million recipients of the government's welfare and subsidy scheme are living below the line, earning less than 30,000 baht a year.
The second phase will see the government allocate 35.7 billion baht to finance 34 projects to raise the income of low-wage earners.
As of last December, the number of Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops totalled 70,344 nationwide.
Mr Whichai is also committed to continuing to upgrade and promote community-based markets, expand low-priced shops to provide closer access to communities in remote areas, and promote the creation of value-added products and processed agricultural items.
More recently, he was one of the key figures within the Commerce Ministry to advocate putting medical supplies and service charges on the state price control list as part of efforts to stem price-gouging. The cabinet approved the ministry's proposal on Jan 22, prompting private hospitals to file a lawsuit with the Central Administrative Court against senior ministry officials including the commerce minister, the permanent secretary and Mr Whichai.
The private hospitals said the Commerce Ministry's proposal and ensuing attempts to control the prices of such products and services have damaged their business. They asked the court to revoke the ministry's order and remove medical supplies and service charges from the state price control list.
"The department has just worked under the law after periodic complaints from patients about overcharging by private hospitals," says Mr Whichai, who chairs the working group tasked with studying the production costs of medicines and medical services.
"What we want is just to require private hospitals to show the price tags for medicine, medical supplies and medical service charges so that consumers can be aware of prices before deciding to use services," he says. "Moreover, patients at private hospitals should be allowed to buy medicine from drugstores using prescriptions given by doctors."