PM taken to task over Thaksin case during budget debate

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

PRIME MINISTER SRETTHA Thavisin was today (Jan.3) taken to task for allegedly doing nothing about de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large Thaksin Shinawatra since he returned from self-exile abroad last year.

During today’s budget debate at parliament, former deputy prime minister-cum-former commerce minister Jurin Laksanavisit took the floor to cast doubt over the scandalous event in which Thaksin has not spent a single day behind bars at Bangkok Remand Prison where he had been originally destined to, following a court convict which had found him guilty of misconduct during his previous premiership and sentenced him in absentia to an eight-year jail term which was curtailed by royal pardon to one year.

Barely a minute after Jurin had raised the issue, Pheu Thai MP Khrumanit Sangpum rose in protest and called on House Speaker Wan Muhamad Nor Matha to stop the Democrat MP from involving the de facto Pheu Thai boss in his floor debate.

The former deputy prime minister called on the prime minister to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the sustained scandals surrounding Thaksin.

Jurin took the Corrections Department to task for allegedly applying double standards in favour of the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large to the extent that he be practically allowed to stay outside of a prison and allegedly flouting the country’s judicial branch.

He said the Thaksin case could possibly trigger a crisis of confidence in the Pheu Thai-led government in general and the prime minister in particular.

A couple of hours earlier, Srettha spent 100 minutes reading out pages of prepared statements on the 2024 budget totaling 3.48 trillion baht, accounting for a 9.3% increase from that of last fiscal year.

The government has calculated to collect a sum of 2.78 trillion baht in revenue throughout the current fiscal year, accounting for 14.7% of the country’s GDP with a 693 billion baht budget deficit or 3.6% of the GDP.

The total budget for fiscal 2024 has been prepared to cover 606 billion baht in the so-called Central Funding at disposal of the prime minister and 346 billion baht in the public sector’s debt repayment, among others.

Given a predicted 2.7 – 3.7% economic growth for current fiscal year, the portfolios allocated the largest slices of the 3.48 trillion baht budget are the Ministry of Interior with 353 billion baht, marking a 8.6% increase from last year, the Ministry of Education with 328 billion baht, the Ministry of Finance with 327 billion baht, remarkably accounting for a 14.7% rise, the Ministry of Defence with 198 billion baht and the Ministry of Transport with 183 billion baht.

Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon charged that the 3.48 trillion baht budget is obviously doing without long-term strategies and priorities whilst the Pheu Thai-led government is merely performing in the style of a “task force” with government funds being allocated on basis of partisan size or the number of MPs attached to respective coalition partners.

Chaithawat apparently referred to the power play over the government setup with Thaksin allegedly taking his part literally from a tight-security, private ward at Police Hospital where he has been staying since he returned from self-exile abroad via his right-hand man/Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer Phumtham Wechayachai.

Most of an estimated 200 newly-designed projects were literally a name change since they were simply passed on from a previous government which had originally drafted them, according to Chaithawat, who concurrently acts as opposition leader.

Meanwhile, Jurin called the 2024 budget bill a “lame duck”, given a five-month period to spend it as the next one is scheduled to come up in May, thus leaving the government a relatively short period to carry out varied national development plans.

The former Democrat leader charged that the Pheu Thai-designed digital wallet project is merely a desperate populist campaign to virtually buy the hearts of voters nationwide with some 500 billion baht in funding to be acquired by loan.

The populist campaign is nowhere in the planned expenditure of the 2024 budget since the prime minister has earlier confirmed he will certainly find some loan, either from within the country or abroad, to finance it.

That the Pheu Thai-attached prime minister had earlier pledged to repay the 500 billion baht loan with budgets for following fiscal years was merely a rhetoric intertwined with such a populist campaign, Jurin said.

The Pheu Thai populist campaign will be provided for those who may earn no more than 70,000 baht in monthly income or have no more than 500,000 baht in bank deposit to buy goods and services via digital wallet in the boundaries of their home districts in a six-month period beginning in May.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin accompanied by cabinet members giving details of the fiscal 2024 budget at parliament today, Jan. 3, 2024. Photo: Thai Rath

First insert:  Jurin Laksanavisit slamming Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin during the budget debate. Photo: Thai Rath

Second insert: Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon criticising the budget allocation. Photo: Matichon

Front Page: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin giving details of the fiscal 2024 budget at parliament . Photo: Matichon

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