Until this year, the Revenue Department has conveniently deposited my tax refund into my Kasikorn bank account.
But now, refunds must be made via a Prompt Pay account that is linked to a Thai citizen ID card. I do not have one. I received a letter from the department advising me to visit Krungthai bank to arrange for payment of the refund.
We went to the local Krungthai branch but the employees were baffled. After much discussion among themselves, they determined that the only way for me to get the refund was to open a Krungthai account and have the refund deposited therein. I agreed.
Opening an account took about 45 minutes, required copies of my passport, tabien ban and driver's licence. Numerous forms were completed including a couple from the US IRS. (I declined to complete a third IRS form because it plainly said not to use it if you are a US citizen, which I am.) I'm sure I signed my name at least two dozen times. At the end of the process, the stack of forms and photocopies was so thick that the poor customer service representative had great difficulty stapling them together.
The account I was given did not come with a passbook or ATM/debit card. It is smartphone-only with withdrawals and payments via QR code. What could go wrong?
Nice job, Revenue Department. Welcome to Thailand 4.0.
Confused in Korat
Time for 'honest' graft?
It is undeniable that Thaksin created a deep divide in Thai society but one cannot help but admire his charm that still lingers despite being in absentia for more than a decade.
Despite the in-your-face control by the military and various coups over the decades, not to mention daily bombardment of propaganda, the government still cannot gain the recognition it craves from the majority without resorting to guns and tanks.
Wouldn't it be better for the military to seek Thaksin's counsel on how he did it? Surely it is not just throwing money at the so-called "uneducated" or buying votes.
Also, without taking sides, it would be refreshing for a political party to come out with a manifesto that states "We will not end corruption as it is in our blood. Give us 30% commission for every deal and we will leave you alone". Budgeting is essential in every business venture. This way, business people know how much to give and who to give to get results.
As they say, honesty is the best policy and voters know what they are getting at. The old way of making deals under the table and giving refrigerators as gifts should be banished to the realms of grandmother stories.
Jeff Chong
Take a look in the mirror...
Not all police, politicians and civil servants are corrupt. Calling an organisation as such corrupt is not quite accurate. People are corrupt, and become worse when they don the uniform or take a position in private and state enterprises. They were corrupt before they got there. It is the society that fails the police, that fails the political process, that fails the nation. And who is to blame for that? The person in the mirror.
Frank
Poland has a clean slate
Contrary to allegations made by Auschwitz Annie in his or her Feb 23 letter, I would like to say anti-Semitic incidents in Poland have been very rare and each case is treated extremely seriously by our authorities. According to the recent report of the European Fundamental Rights Agency, Poland is one of the few countries in the EU where the number of anti-Semitic incidents is low and still significantly decreasing.
It is also important to remember that anyone helping Jews during wartime in Poland faced the death penalty from Nazi/German invaders and not only that person -- their entire families. It was a brave act to do so. Still, tens of thousands of Poles were helping their Jewish brethren. More than 6,800 Poles (the highest number among all nations) have been recognised by Yad Vashem as "righteous among the nations". But the exact number is thought to be higher because many were afraid to tell of their acts of bravery.
It is probably the right moment to mention historical acts: for hundreds of years, Poland had provided shelter to Jews expelled from other countries and, therefore, the Jewish legacy is extremely important from the point of view of Polish authorities.
Waldemar Dubaniowski
Ambassador of Poland in Bangkok
A rubbish argument
About 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water but 97.5% of the amount is sea and ocean; 1.75 % is frozen at the poles, in glaciers, or in permafrost. So the world has to rely on just 0.75% of the planet's available water, almost all of which is subterranean groundwater.
Lamai Beach in Koh Samui is a good example of how water is wasted. Every morning, you can see people watering the sidewalks and roads. Where does it go? They wash down the garbage from the night before it goes into the sewers.
The problem is bigger then we realise.
Froggie
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