Thailand backs draft 5-baht fee for individual DBD company data

What the draft would change

Thailand's Department of Business Development (DBD), under the Ministry of Commerce, maintains the country's corporate registry. Under the existing fee structure described in the Cabinet material, users connecting to DBD's data system pay 30 baht for a dataset even when they need only part of the information.

The draft adds an alternative charge of 5 baht for each individual item drawn from company-certificate data. The listed fields include the entity name, director information, the number or names of directors authorised to bind the company, registered capital, head-office and branch addresses, and the company's registered objectives.

The 30-baht full-dataset option would remain available. The government also said the proposal does not change other fees such as company registration charges, certificate requests, document inspection or certified-copy fees.

For practical context, see Living in Thailand. This development also connects with Thailand approves four draft capital-market laws.

Targeted registry access could make company checks cheaper

A per-field option could reduce the cost of targeted or high-volume checks. A buyer or adviser may, for example, need to confirm who the directors are and who has signing authority before moving to a deeper review, without requiring every available registry field for that first step.

The proposal is narrower than a general cut in the cost of corporate documents. It concerns data linkage and access through DBD's computer system; it does not mean that every company certificate or certified document would cost 5 baht. Nor does a registry lookup replace transaction-level due diligence: corporate data can help establish who the company is and how it is represented, but it does not by itself establish title to a property, the terms of a contract or whether contractual obligations will be performed.

The most important limitation is timing. The Cabinet decision on 5 August approved the draft in principle instead of announcing an effective new tariff. Until the rule-making process is completed and DBD confirms implementation, users should check the fee and access method actually available when they request the data.