Move Forward party deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul claimed today (Monday) that the money to fund the government’s 560-billion baht digital wallet scheme will be come in the form of loans from the Government Savings Bank (GSB).

In her Facebook post today, the party-list MP claims she has found the answer to the big puzzle about the source of funding for the scheme, which is the GSB, not from the national budget, because borrowing from a state-owned bank is not regarded as public debt.

She explained that borrowing from the GSB can be done by expanding the limits of the fiscal discipline framework in the 2024 budget, from 32% to 45%.

Although the bank borrowing is not regarded as public debt, it is still debt which the government will have to repay, adding that, if the amount of repayments is, for example, 50 billion baht, the government will have a 10-year obligation to service the debt, on top of about 100 billion baht in debt that the government has to repay to the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and other state enterprises each year.

She said that the government can also borrow from the GSB without a consent from parliament, an approval from the cabinet will suffice, adding that there is no need for the government to disclose details of the deal to the public either.

Sirikanya said that the borrowing may affect the financial status of the GSB, the same problem encountered by the BAAC due to payment defaults from the government.

She asked whether Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, in his capacity as chair of the Monetary and Fiscal Committee, knows what he is doing.