Budget fight to offer taste of censure debate

“The Democrats are fully ready to call the attention of the government as well as the public to flaws in the Budget Bill,” Opposition Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.
Abhisit said the budget failed to address several long-term issues. One was the government’s mobilisation of funds for populist policies while economic disparities remain neglected, he said.
Certain spending plans, such as the funds earmarked for red-shirt villages, might further drive a wedge between groups in society, he said.
He voiced suspicion that the government was relying on off-budget spending to manipulate and lower the fiscal deficit.
He went on to raise many issues such as the apparent lack of a well-conceived energy policy, the inefficiency of the rice-pledging scheme, and the lack of spending details for funds allocated to post-flood recovery projects.
Some 40 Democrats and 30 Pheu Thai MPs have lined up to speak on the House floor during the three-day debate on Bt2.44-trillion budget.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said the coalition MPs would focus on rebutting the opposition’s claims, particularly the allegation that Pheu Thai-supervised ministries seem to have enjoyed disproportionate increases in spending allocations.
Prompong said the spending plans, such as an upgrade of work skills under the Labour Ministry, were justified. He denied that Pheu Thai was dominating the budgetary allocations.
“If the Democrats try to turn the budget debate into a censure in order to discredit the government, some 20 Pheu Thai MPs plan to lodge protests to rein in the opposition’s speeches,” he said.