- Closure of COVID-19 at risk public venues such as entertainment venues, service providing venues,
live-entertainment venues, massage parlors and any venues that perform similar services.
- Prohibition of dine-in customers at restaurants.
- Closure of shopping malls with restricted opening for essential products.
- Closure of shops or establishments that hold Type 1 and 2 Alcohol License. ThaiBev was directly impacted given that ThaiBev holds Type 1 Alcohol License.
- Designated hours in which people are prohibited from leaving their residences, except in necessary and exceptional cases.
- Prohibition of cross-province transportation at certain hours.
Given the above government orders, ThaiBev had to adjust its production, sales, and distribution plans in accordance to product shelf life and financial liquidity while being able to meet customers’ and consumers’ needs and ensuring business continuity. The plan also include ensuring employee safety in work environment as some employees had to work in the offices while others worked from home following the government order. To ensure employee well-being, ThaiBev distributed alcohol gel, masks, and other essential items to
employees.
In the past, an electronic meeting must follow Announcement No. 74/2557 of the National Council of Peace and Order on electronic meetings, which was signed on June 27, 2014. It specified that one third of attendees must be in the same venue, and all attendees must be in Thailand during the meeting, which is difficult in practice and does not follow physical distancing measure to control and reduce COVID-19 infections per guideline of the World Health Organization. Thus, ThaiBev was not able to hold the electronic meeting as required by law. The Emergency Decree on Electronic Meetings B.E. 2563, which became effective on 19 April 2020, changed electronic meeting criteria by removing the requirements for all attendees to be at the same venue in Thailand. Hence, ThaiBev was able to organize Board of Directors meetings through electronic channel where some of the board members attended the electronic meeting from oversea. ThaiBev’s electronic meeting is conducted with secured online technology and in accordance with the applicable laws.
The Act regulates transfer pricing between companies and juristic partnerships that are related to each other. Before this Act became effective on 22 November 2018, the Revenue Department designated guidelines per Revenue Department Order No. Por. 113/2545 on Transfer Pricing According to the Market Price for Corporate Income Tax, which was signed on 16 May 2002. ThaiBev had identified compensation per this Order even though it was not an official regulation. Later, this was amended and officially established as a
law which gave authority to the Revenue Department to improve both income and expenses of companies and juristic partnerships that are related to each other in the case that compensation does not follow Arm’s Length Price Principle (The Arm’s-Length Principle of transfer pricing states that the amount charged by one related party to another for a product must be the same as if the parties were not related, e.g., the same price that would be charged on the open market). The aforementioned law will come into effect on ThaiBev’s
2020 accounting period. But since the law became effective in 2019, ThaiBev Group prepared transfer
pricing document for the entire group and subsidiary companies within the non-alcoholic beverage business
in the 2019 accounting period. In the 2020 accounting period, ThaiBev expanded to include beer factories and will include other parts of the beer business and other business in the future.
This Act came into effect on March 13, 2019. However, taxes on land and buildings will be collected in 2020 with cancellation of the collection of annual building and land tax (the amount of income that the property should generate through rental each year) according to the Building and Land Tax Act B.E. 2475 and collection of land development tax based on average land price instead of the estimated price of the land and building. ThaiBev has a policy to manage land and buildings owned by Thailbev to meet the conditions of the law and to generate economic value for the company, employees, communities, and the country. ThaiBev provides an opportunity for employees or their families to rent areas owned by the company to increase their income and to build a stronger relationship with the Group. It also encourages the villagers in the communities around the Group’s facilities to rent agricultural land for farming. In this accounting period, the Group has already utilized 1,657 rai and 17.45 square wa more by renting out to 10 employees or their family members, 9 villagers nearby and 3 other persons. All together ThaiBev has already utilized 2,612 rai and 57.25 square wa.
Even though the exemption of some parts of the regulations under the Act, such as personal data protection, rights of data subject, complaints, civil liability and penalty, are extended to 31 May 2021, ThaiBev has already implemented measures to abide by the law, for instance, requesting permission from individual, declaring objectives of data collection, and using the data for specific objective only.
Unless it is the case where the laws allow data collection without prior permission. ThaiBev also improved job application forms, employment contracts and other important documents, together with access to ThaiBev’s related websites to be in line with current legal regulations in order to avoid impact on data protection rights.
This regulation will come into effect on 7 December 2020, which prohibits online sales of alcohol beverages directly to consumers through any means or services. This includes any acts that promote or endorse the sale, direct sale or services to consumers through marketing channels, or selling alcoholic beverages through electronic communication between sellers and consumers without physical interaction. It does not include the prohibition of sale and payment of alcoholic beverages through electronic means at point of sale, restaurant, or alcoholic beverage providers’ venues. This law does not affect ThaiBev directly
since ThaiBev does not sell alcoholic beverages straight to consumers through electronic media but it affects ThaiBev stakeholders in ThaiBev’s business value chain. Some are selling them online directly to consumers. In this regard, ThaiBev has given suggestions based on legal obligations to the stakeholders in the business value chain who are affected.
