Thailand’s next prime minister Srettha Thavisin has crypto history
Thailand’s parliament on Aug. 22 voted for real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin to be the country’s next prime minister. Thavisin is best known as former president and CEO of Sansiri, one of the largest real estate developers in Thailand, which also has some cryptocurrency background.
Thavisin, 60, was the only candidate brought to elections by the Pheu Thai Party, receiving 482 votes out of a possible 747 in Thailand’s parliament.
His victory could potentially have some implications for the cryptocurrency industry in Thailand as his family company, Sansiri, was an active investor in the country’s digital asset industry. Thavisin quit as Sansiri CEO in April 2023 amid speculation that he would be named Thailand’s next PM. He also shed his 4.4% stake in Sansiri at the time.
In 2021, Sansiri participated in a $225 million raise for a crypto-friendly investment management firm XSpring Capital. Subsequently, XSpring launched a fully integrated cryptocurrency trading platform in 2022. The firm plans to become a top-three company in the crypto exchange market by 2025.
Apart from backing major crypto projects in Thailand, Thavisin’s Sansiri is also known for issuing and distributing its own tokens through XSpring in 2022. Called “SiriHub Token,” the digital asset is part of a real estate-backed initial coin offering (ICO) which offered a total of 240 million tokens to the general public in 2022.
The Pheu Thai Party — which Thavisin joined in November 2022 — also previously proposed distributing some money to Thai citizens in case it wins the elections. The party specifically promised to give the country’s citizens 10,000 Thai baht ($285) in April 2023 and send the amount using digital currency.
As Thavisin’s government is expected to assume office by the end of September, it remains to be seen whether his crypto-related background would impact Thailand’s crypto policies.
Related: Thailand threatens Facebook over crypto scams and other fraudulent ads
Days ahead of the vote, Thavisin took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to stress that he was participating in the elections because he wanted to “improve the country and the economy.” He added:
“My enemies are poverty and the inequality of the people. My goal is the well-being of all Thai people.”
The news comes a few months after Thailand’s cabinet decided to offer tax breaks for corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue investment tokens. Announcing the initiative in March, deputy government spokesman Rachada Dhnadirek said that the government expects investment token offerings to generate 128 billion Thai baht ($3.7 billion) over the next two years.
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Politics
Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
Read more:
Ex-Labour adviser suggests doing to farms ‘what Thatcher did to coal mines’
Farmers ‘could block ports and disrupt food supply’
Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
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