Chamroen Phothiyod, the Treasury Department’s director-general, said on Tuesday that the department will mint 1.07 billion coins in the 2023 fiscal year compared to 1.60 billion in fiscal 2022.
The minting of coins for 2023 kicked off in October this year, he said.
Chamroen said he expects the production of coins to drop further over the years, though he believes the number of coins in circulation will not drop much as the department has to replace damaged coins.
He said the department replaces some 3 billion damaged coins on average per year.
“There are 38 billion coins worth 79 billion baht currently in circulation,” he said, adding that there is still a high demand for coins, especially among retailers.
He added that a drop in coin production can bring down his department’s revenue. He expects the production of coins in fiscal 2023 will generate about 900 million baht in revenue, compared to around 1 billion baht in 2022.
“To maintain its revenue, the department has decided to start producing commemorative coins,” he said, adding that the department also produces special coins for private agencies and other countries.
Earlier, the Bank of Thailand said the PromptPay application is a game changer as it helped turn Thailand into a cashless society.
PromptPay, which was introduced in 2015, allows people to make electronic transactions with a cheaper transaction fee.
It also allows government agencies to make transactions accurately and transparently, the central bank said.
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