During the past few months, 'Kom' (not his real name) has made several calls to a sub-district office in Nonthaburi to check if he can get his national identification card. The answer, to date, has been "No".
Relevant authorities have blamed this delay on a supplier's failure to deliver blank cards on time and also on the very high number of missing ID cards. Last year, 1.8 million ID cards were reported as "lost" with their owners officially asking for replacements. Kom also lost his ID card.
"We are planning to raise the fee for the replacement," Premsak Kiranont said in his role as head of the ID-card division at the Bureau of Registration Administration in the Department of Provincial Administration.
"The Bt20 fee has been in place for two decades already. We believe it's time for a change," he said.
Premsak also hoped the higher fee would encourage people to keep closer watch on their ID cards.
He said the actual cost for an ID card shouldered by the government was in fact well over Bt100 and that lost cards now cost the country more than Bt200 million a year. The Department of Provincial Administration is working on a proposal that a person who loses his or her ID card repeatedly be subjected to a higher fee, he said.
The fee would stay at just Bt20 if a person loses their ID card once. But for a second time, the fee would rise to Bt50. For a person who loses their ID card three times, the fee would be Bt100.
Premsak said the proposal must receive endorsement from the Council of State and the Cabinet, before the increase can take effect.
He said Singapore charged up to 100 Singapore dollars for a person who needs a replacement for a lost ID card, while Malaysia charged 200 Ringgit, and Hong Kong charged 395 Hong Kong dollars.
Duangsuda Apiwatdamrongkit, a student at the Khon Kaen University, felt, however, that the state policy to require children aged from seven years to carry an ID card is the reason for long queues for ID-card issuance. Starting from mid-2011, the laws have required younger Thais to have an ID card. In the past, only those over 15 years old needed to this official document.
The shortage of blank cards was very serious late last year when Duangsuda rang many district offices to see if she could get a new ID card.
Premsak reckoned the shortage really took place at that period but he said the situation had already improved. He said authorities were in the process of importing three million blank cards from South Korea. And some 700,000 of those have already reached Thailand. "Each service unit can issue more than 100 ID cards a day," he said.
But not all service units have enough cards. Oy (not her real name) called on the Klong Luang District Office in Pathum Thani at 10am yesterday only to be told blank cards for new ID had already ran out.
"I was told the office got just 90 blank cards for the day," she said.
Oy then rushed to Mueang Tha Klong Municipal Office in the hope of getting an ID card to replace her one that was about to expire. "But there, the blank cards also ran out. It got just 40 cards," she lamented.
She tired a third time, as an ID card is very important for various agencies and with which to conduct financial transactions, after all.
"I showed up at the Bang Na District Office in Bangkok. But it said all 100 blank cards already ran out. If I wanted to get the ID card, I must be ready to join a queue at least half an hour before the district office opens at 8.30 am," Oy said.
Thanet Utaisri, 39, said he spoke to a service unit in Chon Buri in the morning one day and there had already been more than 150 people before him in the queue. "It was past 3pm when I actually got the ID card," he said.
He believed the number of people seeking ID cards in Chon Buri was high because the government allowed migrants to contact a service unit
outside their registered hometown too. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is aware of this too and is considering whether to charge more - for migrants.
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Source: http://www.news.thethailandlinks.com/2013/01/20/amid-shortage-of-national-id-cards-authorities-plan-to-hike-fee-for-replacements/
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