People’s party to join Democrats in challenging ฿400bn baht emergency loan decree

The opposition People’s party has agreed to support the Democrats in seeking a Constitutional Court ruling on the constitutionality of the government’s emergency decree seeking a 400 billion baht loan, ostensibly to boost the economy, help people affected by oil crisis and to drive Thailand’s transition from dependence on fossil fuels to alternative and clean energy.

Democrat party deputy leader Korn Chatikavanij said today that he expects the petition, to be signed by MPs of the Democrat and People’s parties, to be submitted to the Charter Court through the House Speaker by next Tuesday at the latest.

He argued that, even though the government is constitutionally entitled to issue the emergency decree, the economic situation has not reached the level of “inevitable crisis” to justify its issuance.

“Thailand’s fiscal status is stable compared to the situations in several other countries,” claimed Korn, adding that every government in the past several years had limitations on how much it could borrow annually.

He noted that the Anutin government has always blamed the economic crisis on rising oil prices, despite the Democrat party’s insistence that domestic oil prices need not be so high if the government stops using oil prices in Singapore as the benchmark in determining local prices.

Korn disclosed that previous governments had promulgated emergency decrees to enable them to borrow, but the economic situations then were much worse than today under the Anutin administration.

He cited the “Tom Yum Gung” crisis in 1998, during which Thailand’s GDP growth registered -8% for eight consecutive quarters; the “Hamburger” crisis 2009, when GDP growth was -7% and the COVID-19 crisis during the administration of General Prayut Chan-o-cha, when Thailand’s GDP was -6%.

He pointed out that the GDP growth projection for this year is currently +1.5%.