Following their debate yesterday, the House of Representatives passed seven air cleanliness bills in their first readings, by 443 votes with one abstention.

The seven bills were proposed by government and opposition parties and a civil society organisation.

A 39-member committee, comprised of both government and opposition MPs, was set up by the House to scrutinise all the seven bills, with the government-sponsored version to be used as the basis.

After the completion of the scrutiny process, the seven bills will be merged into one and then submitted to the House for the second and final readings.

The government-sponsored bill seeks the creation of an air cleanliness policy committee, to be chaired by the prime minister, which will be tasked with drawing up a master plan for clean and safe air and setting out economic, financial and tax measures in the management of air quality.

The bill also seeks to impose penalties on polluters, including 50,000 baht fines for those who cause air pollution and those who burn waste outdoors.