TTM Move Out of Bangkok Kick-Started

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 12/16/2010

The Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) has received cabinet approval to use its own funds to construct a THB16.2 billion factory at an industrial estate in Ayutthaya province, according to a Bangkok Post story. TTM's Board approved the purchase of land at the industrial estate in August last year and, so far, TTM has spent THB679.11 million out of an approved budget of THB877 million for design consulting fees. A government spokesman, Vachara Kannikar, was quoted as saying that the cabinet had approved also a Finance Ministry proposal to cut TTM's contribution to the national treasury in fiscal 2012. At present TTM contributes 88 per cent of its net income to the treasury. The ministry reasoned that although TTM is profitable, it has limited access to funds because some financial institutions will not lend to tobacco companies. It was the mid-1990s when the government first began talking about moving TTM out of Bangkok, where the tobacco monopoly currently occupies one of the most coveted pieces of real estate left in the center of the capital. Enditem