A senator for Chiang Rai has asked the agencies running the Mae Sai crossing to put more staff on at busy hours and to turn the existing electronic border pass into a service that handles the whole process, from checking documents to paying the fee.
Maneerat Khemawong set out the proposals on Friday, October 23, pointing to the queues that build at the crossing into Tachileik in Myanmar.
Mae Sai is the main land route between the two countries in the north, carrying trade, tourism and the daily travel of people who live on both sides.
She asked for more officers at peak times, orderly queueing and a review of the document checks, while saying none of it should weaken immigration control or national security.
The border pass itself is where she wants most of the change. Applicants now move through separate steps to file, have the documents checked, collect the pass and pay, which she said costs time and crowds the counters.
Thailand already takes applications electronically through an E-Border Pass system, and she asked whether that could be extended to pre-checks, booked slots, status updates, results and payment.
On money she asked for fee schedules to be published and itemised by their legal basis, and for electronic payment with receipts that can be checked afterwards.
She also asked that Thai fees be shown separately from anything charged on the Myanmar side, because each country sets its own.
She added that an extra charge should not be called unlawful until the detail of that particular item has been checked, which is as close as the proposals come to naming a complaint.
Later stages could show estimated waiting times on a website and on screens at the crossing, with separate lanes by document type. She pointed to Hong Kong and Macau as the model.
None of this is policy yet. The proposals go to the agencies that run the crossing, and none has said whether it will take them up.
In similar news
- Thailand-Myanmar land border in Chiang Rai reopens after 3-year closure
- Thai-Myanmar gates reopen after sudden closure
- Chiang Rai faces third flood this year as Mae Sai River overflows
The story Chiang Rai senator wants digital border passes to shorten Mae Sai queues as seen on Thaiger News.