Move Forward leader believes govt trying to bail out of handout scheme
A deputy leader of the opposition Move Forward Party believes the government may be trying to get its controversial digital handout scheme aborted through a court ruling.
Sirikanya Tansakun, deputy leader of Move Forward, believes that the government is considering the "Loan Act" path for funding to invite a ruling from the Constitutional Court that would block the implementation of the controversial policy.
Sirikanya was speaking after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s statement on Friday on the 10,000 baht digital wallet policy.
She said it was still not clear from where the government would find the budget to implement the scheme that promised every Thai aged 16 and above 10,000 baht through a digital wallet for spending.
She said that although Srettha had amended the eligibility by excluding people with a monthly income of 70,000 baht or savings in their bank accounts exceeding 500,000 baht, there was still a risk that the scheme may not take off at all.
She explained her theory to the most challenging path chosen by the PM to enact a royal decree for borrowing 500 billion baht to fund the project, making it difficult to ascertain the funding source.
She said the issuance of a loan decree could be found to violate the Constitution and the Financial Discipline Act, as such a borrowing could be authorised only in cases of urgent necessity.
As of today, there was no urgent necessity, she said.
She believes the current circumstances were similar to the loan decree of 2 trillion baht proposed by the former Pheu Thai government of Yingluck Shinawatra, which was challenged before the Constitutional Court.
She observed that the government's choice of this path to secure funding seemed to hint at a reluctance to see the success of this project.
