The House of Representatives has scheduled a special debate on the government’s proposed 122 billion baht supplementary budget, to fund the digital wallet scheme, for this Wednesday.
Government chief whip Wisut Chainaroon said today that he is confident that the proposed supplementary budget will sail through the Lower House.
The debating time has been divided into five hours for opposition parties, three hours for government coalition MPs, two hours for cabinet ministers and one hour for the House Speaker or his deputy.
Wisut said that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin will join the debate for only a short time, as one of his deputies, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira, will handle questions raised by opposition MPs.
After the debate, a House scrutiny committee will be appointed to review the supplementary budget for two days and return it to the House for its second and final readings, so disbursement of the 10,000 baht benefit payments can begin in the fourth quarter of the year as scheduled, he added.
Meanwhile, opposition chief whip and Move Forward MP Pakornwut Udompipatskul said that his party has nominated ten MPs to take part in the debate, adding that they have yet to decide who, party leader Chaithawat Tulathon or deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul, will make the opening and closing statements.
Originally, the government planned to secure the 500 billion baht funding from three sources: 175 billion baht from the 2024 fiscal budget, 152.7 billion baht from the 2025 fiscal budget and 172.3 billion baht borrowed from the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC).
Due to resistance from opponents over borrowing from BAAC, however, the government has cancelled that plan and has trimmed the funding requirement for the scheme to 450 billion baht.
