The opposition People’s party questioned the Education Ministry today about the necessity and rationale of appointing the Office of Welfare Promotion Commission for Teachers and Educational Personnel, better known as the “Suksapan Store”, to manage the printing and distribution of textbooks for schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC).
Thiratchai Panthumat, a People’s party MP representing Bangkok, told the House, on the third day of the budget debate, that that the role of “Suksapan Store” is that of a middleman, but it is making about one billion baht in revenue from the difference between the printing costs and the selling prices of the textbooks.
The budget allocated for OBEC textbooks for the 2026 fiscal year is 5.06bn baht and OBEC spends an average of 5bn baht each year on textbooks for primary education students. About 3bn baht is spent to hire private publishers to print the textbooks and the rest is done by government publishing houses.
Thiratchai questioned why “Suksapan” needs to manage the printing and distribution of the textbooks and make a profit, estimated at about one billion baht a year.
Only about 247 million baht is returned to state coffers, with the rest being declared as “management expenses”, claimed the opposition MP, adding that “Suksapan” also does not distribute the textbooks itself, but contracts private firms and gives 18-30% discount on the cover prices printed on the books.
He questioned Education Minister Permpoon Chidchob, in his capacity as a board member of “Suksapan Store”, whether it would be more reasonable for OBEC to manage the printing and distribution of textbooks, to save the “management costs.”
Thiratchai also made an allegation of collusion in the bidding for the right to print the books, by setting terms of reference (TOR) in favour of the old printers to block newcomers, adding that the collusion has cost the state more than 100 million baht in additional costs.
