Bangkok:Mr. Pawut Pongwitayapanu, a Member of Parliament from the People's Party and Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Enhancing Thailand's Digital Capabilities, has unveiled significant findings regarding Thailand's digital economy. He reported that in the first half of the year, Thai consumers spent over 138 billion baht on transactions with 20 multinational platforms.

According to Thai News Agency, the sub-committee has been working closely with the Bank of Thailand, the Thai Bankers' Association, and the Revenue Department to gather detailed statistics on spending through credit cards, debit cards, and mobile banking directed towards foreign platform providers. This collaboration revealed that between January and June 2026, spending on the top 20 foreign platforms totaled 138,693 million baht.

The data highlights that Shopee accounted for the largest share of this spending at 69,844 million baht. Other platforms with substantial spending included Facebook, TikTok, Lazada, and Agoda. Despite the benefits these platforms offer, Mr. Pawut emphasized the need for the government to address the outflow of money and boost the digital economy's domestic share.

To tackle these issues, Mr. Pawut proposed five key policy recommendations. These include continuous data collection to understand financial flows, ensuring fair tax practices for foreign platforms, supporting domestic digital services and startups, promoting the export of Thai digital services, and enhancing digital skills among the Thai workforce.

Mr. Pawut urged the government to integrate these recommendations into actionable policies, aiming for a sustainable reduction in Thailand's digital deficit.