Government’s Risky Decision to Raise Loans for Digital Wallet Program Sparks Concerns: MP Sirikanya Tansakul

Bangkok — MP and Move Forward Party deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul said yesterday that the government’s decision to raise loans to finance the digital wallet program was risky as it could violate the Constitution and the Fiscal Discipline Law.

Reacting to the new guidelines for the program announced by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, she said that the government has chosen the most difficult path by opting to enact a loan law to raise financing, knowing that there is no urgency to justify the borrowing, citing the case of a previous government’s two trillion baht loan bill that was thrown out by the Constitutional Court.

She expressed suspicion that the government is actually seeking to abolish the program because it has reached a dead end in finding money to finance it and has chosen the risky route through a credit law.

The Move Forward MP also admitted she has no idea how the government came to the conclusion that people who are more than 70.000 Baht a month, you are not entitled to it 10.000 Baht aid.

She said she did not want to take the matter to the Constitutional Court, but would like the government to first seek advice from the State Council on whether it is permissible for the government to enact a loan law to raise funds for the program.