The pandemic started to take a bite out of state enterprises' revenue remittances in March, says the State Enterprise Policy Office's (Sepo) chief.
State enterprises showed clear signs their income remittance will fall short of target in March and their revenue contribution in the months ahead will be a concern if the virus continues to spread, said Prapas Kong-Ied, Sepo's director-general.
Sepo will make every effort to achieve the government's target for this fiscal year and plans to have state enterprises remit retained profit to government coffers, preventing those whose earnings remain solid from using the pandemic as an excuse for lower contributions, he said.
State enterprises' remittance is targeted at 189 billion baht for fiscal 2020.
For the five months through February, state enterprises' income remittance amounted to 96.8 billion baht, exceeding the target by 6.66 billion.
In February, the top 10 state enterprise contributors were the Government Lottery Office at 22 billion baht, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand at 18.3 billion, PTT at 13.1 billion, Airports of Thailand at 10.5 billion, Provincial Electricity Authority at 5.73 billion, Government Savings Bank at 5.41 billion, Port Authority of Thailand at 4.02 billion, CAT Telecom at 3.89 billion, Expressway Authority of Thailand at 3.84 billion and GH Bank at 2.41 billion.
In 2020, Thailand's economy is expected to experience the deepest contraction since the financial crisis in 1998.
The Bank of Thailand last month slashed its economic growth forecast to a 5.3% contraction from 2.8% growth predicted previously.
Mr Prapas said allocating retained profit to government coffers will not lead to any problems with state enterprise earnings.
To facilitate state enterprises' operations during the pandemic, Sepo has asked for details about impacts and preventive measures, and whether any of the enterprises need special assistance, he said.
State enterprises managed to remit 169 billion baht in income to the government in fiscal 2019, surpassing the target by 1.15 billion.
