Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has hit back at Move Forward deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul, who said that the government’s decision to resort to a loan bill to procure funding for the digital wallet may be a desperate attempt to scuttle the scheme by using the Constitutional Court, because the loan bill may be deemed unconstitutional and contravene the fiscal discipline law.
“Do not judge other people by your standards. Do not politicise the honest intention and determination of the government to improve the living conditions of the people just to cause public confusion,” wrote the prime minister in his X post on Saturday morning, in response to Sirikanya’s criticism.
Sirikanya predicted that, in the end, the Thai people will not receive the 10,000 baht promised by the government, because the proposed loan bill will be struck down by the Constitutional Court. The Yingluck Shinawatra administration’s two trillion baht loan bill, to fund the high-speed electric train project, was previously struck down on the grounds that the project was not urgent enough to justify the promulgation of such a bill.
Meanwhile, serial petitioner and political activist Srisuwan Janya said that he will lodge a petition with the Constitutional Court, through the ombudsman, on Monday, seeking a decision on whether the planned 500 billion baht loan bill would be a violation of Section 140 of the Constitution and Section 53 of the Fiscal Discipline Act.
Senator Kamnoon Sidhisamarn said in his Facebook post today that the government’s proposed loan bill does not meet the requirements of the fiscal discipline law, because the scheme is not urgent, will not be implemented continuously, does not address a national crisis or budget cannot be allocated in time for its implementation, which are criteria to support a loan bill..
