July 7, 2020 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News The House committee’s vetting the fiscal year 2021 budget bill vowed to slash all unnecessary spending that will not spur the economy after the COVID-19 crisis. Worawat Ua-apinyakul, as a member of the House committee’s vetting the fiscal year 2021 budget bill, said his committee has demanded the government side to cut spending in the new budget bill that is not instrumental in driving economic growth. The vetting committee will have around 2 months to scrutinise the budget details before the parliament tabled the 2nd reading of the 3.3-trillion-baht budget bill, Worawat said, stressing that the committee plans to give recommendations on changes and cuts to unnecessary spending such as arms procurement. Among the committee members is Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the former leader of the Future Forward Party (FFP), an opposition party that was dissolved in February by the Constitutional Court. Mr Thanathorn said he will scrutinise the bill and give recommendations on the government's budget spending. Regarding criticism of his appointment as a committee member despite him being stripped of his MP status and banned from politics, Mr Thanathorn said the ban does not mean his rights as a citizen were also removed. The FFP was disbanded over a 191.2-million-baht loan it took from Mr Thanathorn. After a 3 day debate on the 3.3-trillion-baht budget bill for the fiscal year 2021, the House of Representatives voted to pass the 1st reading on Friday night (July 3). The bill passed with 273 votes in favour, 200 against and 3 abstentions. Former Ruam Phalang Prachachart Thai Party executive Warong Dechgitvigrom took to his Facebook page to question the transparency of the “May Day May Day” online fundraising concert held by the Progressive Movement. Warong produced a list of 15 individuals whom he claimed to fail to receive donations from the movement. On his Facebook post, Warong urged movement leaders Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul and Pannika Wanich as organisers of the fundraising concert to produce bank statements which showed that the movement really transferred money to the 15 individuals during May-June. Warong said the movement can have 48 hours to produce evidence to clarity the matter or he will follow up on who among these organisers may have misspent funds raised. In response to Warong’s complaint, Pannika came out to issue a statement explaining that the movement has made 15,383 transactions totalling 7,751,783 baht during May 1-July 3, 2020 from the movement’s SCB bank account No. 409-450005-8 under the name Pannika Wanich. 7,751,783 million baht was raised from 15,383 transactions and out of this 7,529,000 was paid out Former Democrat MP Watchara Petchthong called on Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to look into rampant corruption in the construction of the 12-billion-baht parliament building. This time, the ex-Democrat MP claimed that 500-million-baht under-the-table money was involved in new parliament ICT funds worth 8.648 billion baht. Watchara said he suspected that the massive amount of money has come from taxpayers’ money. Watchara said his claim can be documented back a defamation case filed by former National Legislative Assembly (NLA) member Chatchawal Suksomjit over the corruption in ICT funds at the new parliament building. Watchara claimed that a witness in this case testified before the Criminal Court that a high-level official of the parliament said he heard former NLA president Pornphetch Wichitchonchai talked about the delays in the construction of parliament project that, “nothing is ready but the project must go on. There is 500-million-baht under the table money” during the handing down of policies to parliament officials. Former appointed senator Ruangkrai Leekijwattana plans to petition the Election Commission (EC) to ask the Constitutional Court to dissolve the Phalang Pracharat Party (PPRP) for using the offices of the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation Project (East Region) for political activities. Ruangkrai said his move came after PPRP deputy leader Paiboon Nititawan admitted that PPRP executive committee members and party key figures led by chief government whip Wirat Rattanaset went to invite Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon at the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation on June 23 to formally invite him to become the new party leader. Gen Prawit reportedly accepted the invitation at the meeting. Ruangkrai said his move came as a result of Paiboon’s bid to challenge him to seek the court’s ruling on the legality of the PPRP’s meeting with Gen Prawit. The ex-senator said he plans to petition the Election Commission (EC) at 11.00 hrs on July 9 to ask the charter court to rule on the matter. The opposition Pheu Thai Party is set to hold a general assembly at 10.00 hrs on July 10. It will be interesting to see if the party will make any adjustment to its executive board or not. The party’s secretary-general, Anudith Nakornthap, came out to deny rumours of growing dissatisfaction among the party’s north-eastern MPs following the accusation that the executive committee cut the quota of north-eastern MPs serving on the House committee’s vetting the fiscal year 2021 budget bill. Anudith tried to placate disgruntled north-eastern MPs as he said it is not possible for the party to appoint MPs from every province when the party received only 15 representatives from the allotted quota on the vetting committee. The Ruamphalang Prachachartthai Party or the Action Coalition for Thailand (ACT) held a general assembly yesterday (July 6) to select a new executive committee and a new party leader following the resignation of Chatumongol Sonakul. At the meeting, the party’s new 7-member executive board voted to pick former party secretary-general Taweesak Na Takuathung as the new party leader while Anek Laothamatas, another founding member of the party, was elected to the executive committee. The party also nominated Anek to succeed Chatumongkol as new labour minister if Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha make changes to the cabinet line-up. The meeting also elected Duangrit Benjathikul Chairungrueng and Thantornthep Yam-uthai to be the party director and the party registrar. Anek’s niece Chutathut Laothamatas was elected as party treasurer. Other executive committee members are Jak Punchoopet and Danuch Tanterdtid. ACT co-founder Suthep Thaugsuban vowed to keep the labour ministerial portfolio in the party’s quota which will see Anek as a replacement for Chatumongkol. Suthep is adamant that Gen Prayut assigned his party to look after the labour portfolio from the start and dismissed rumours that his party is seeking to exchange the labour portfolio with the foreign affairs portfolio. He stressed that a cabinet reshuffle decision rests solely with the prime minister. The weekend was filled with rumours and one of the strangest one was that Army Chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, was looking at ways to extend his mandatory retirement age from 60 which he is set to reach on September 30, 2020. Such a move would not be a surprise as a few former strongmen have done so and 2 have failed. The 2 who failed to do were Chavalit Yongchaiyudh who was the army chief from 1986-1990 Arthit Kamlang-ek who was army chief from 1982 until 1986 He tried to get an extension until 1987, but was dismissed by then Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda, to become the 1st army chief to be dismissed from active duty. The ones who were successful was Prem Tinsulanonda who was the army chief from 1978-1982 1 year extension in 1981 then he quit from August 25, 1982 Economic News The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) warned of an economic tsunami that may hit Thailand in the 2nd half of this year caused by an array of unfavourable economic conditions. Kriangkrai Tiennukul, the FTI’s vice-chairman and chairman of the FTI’s sub- panel on recovery plan for alleviating the economic impact of Covid-19, warned that COVID-19 could create a global economic tsunami that is coming to hit the Thai economy with full force. Such an economic devastation that continues wreaking havoc small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs in particular have been negatively impacted by the crisis, Kriangkrai said, adding that the FTI will have to keep an eye on how much the government’s economic stimulus measures will yield results. Meanwhile the FTI is set to hold the 2020 annual general meeting on July 29th after postponement from March 30, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The FTI is preparing to elect a new FTI chairman at the upcoming meeting, Kriangkrai said, adding that a majority of FTI members agreed to support Supant Mongkolsuthree, the current FTI chairman whose terms in office runs from 2018 to 2020, to keep his tenure for another term in order to drive policy continuity. Thai people have no more than 50,000 baht in their savings accounts, as suggested by the Bank of Thailand (BoT)’s data. A report from the Central Bank regarding the country’s deposit accounts with commercial banks as of the end of April 2020 revealed that there were 102.1 million accounts in the entire system of commercial banks, accounting for 15.25 trillion baht in total. Such figures indicated that a majority of Thais have no more than 50,000 baht in their banks’ outstanding balance in savings accounts at the end of April, a total of 88.41 million accounts or 86.59% of the total number of deposit accounts.