BANGKOK: Phuket officials have joined a national protest in Bangkok - but made the point that Phuket needs government funding more than any other province.
While Phuket is given back 27.5 percent of the revenue that flows to the national government, the total is based on Phuket's official population of about 320,000 citizens.
Yet as the Chief Executive of the Phuket Provincial Administration, Paiboon Upatising, pointed out at today's protest, there are another 300,000 to 700,000 people on Phuket at any one time.
About 1000 officials took their protest to Royal Plaza in Bangkok today. They want the percentage that flows back to local organisations lifted to 30 percent.
Represented today were the National Municipal League of Thailand, the Provincial Administration Organisation Council of Thailand, and the Sub-district Administration Organisation of Thailand.
Many people who travel to Phuket to find work prefer to stay registered in their home provinces, a habit that officials have found difficult to break.
Phuket will also be home briefly for about five million tourists this year and as many as 200,000 legal and illegal Burmese workers are reported to be on Phuket.
While Phuket is given back 27.5 percent of the revenue that flows to the national government, the total is based on Phuket's official population of about 320,000 citizens.
Yet as the Chief Executive of the Phuket Provincial Administration, Paiboon Upatising, pointed out at today's protest, there are another 300,000 to 700,000 people on Phuket at any one time.
About 1000 officials took their protest to Royal Plaza in Bangkok today. They want the percentage that flows back to local organisations lifted to 30 percent.
Represented today were the National Municipal League of Thailand, the Provincial Administration Organisation Council of Thailand, and the Sub-district Administration Organisation of Thailand.
Many people who travel to Phuket to find work prefer to stay registered in their home provinces, a habit that officials have found difficult to break.
Phuket will also be home briefly for about five million tourists this year and as many as 200,000 legal and illegal Burmese workers are reported to be on Phuket.
As far as have understood then you can only register yourself in a province if you have your name in a tabien baan for a property in that province, so unless you own property (a rental is not good enough) in a province or have a friend that lets you put your name there then you cannot register and the province can not count you as one of theirs. So how about changing that system to a more modern one, where you simply have to register in the province where you live whether it is a rental, hotel provided accommodation for staff etc, then the problem would be solved and every province would know how many inhabitants they had and the state could distribute the tax money more fairly . Just protesting does not solve the problem .
Posted by Sailor on May 14, 2013 15:58
Editor Comment:
Some elections are probably based on property ownership but it's unlikely there are 320,000 property owners on Phuket. I think registration for adult voters simply depends on producing documentary evidence you reside on Phuket.