Opposition asks charter court to block part of government’s Bt400bn loan

The opposition People’s and Democrat parties submitted a motion to the Constitutional Court today, via the Speaker of the House, challenging the legality of half of the 400 billion baht loan to be sought by the government to fund its plan to migrate from a dependence on fossil fuels to alternative clean energy.

Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, leader of the People’s party, said that the Opposition had invoked Article 173 of the Constitution to seek the court’s ruling on 200 billion baht of the borrowing.

Opposition parties, said Natthaphong, feel strongly that the planned energy restructuring is not related to economic security and is not regarded as “urgently necessary”, but the government chose to put this project into the same borrowing package intended to help people cope with the oil crisis.

Meanwhile, Democrat Deputy Leader Korn Chatikavanij said that the Constitution allows the government to seek loan in case of an “inevitably urgent” economic crisis.

He said that energy restructuring is not, however, urgently necessary and thus does meet the requirements of Article 172 of the Constitution and Article 53 of the Fiscal Discipline Act.

Sirikanya Tansakul, deputy leader of the People’s party, said the Opposition only wants the court to injunct the disbursement of the 200 billion baht meant for energy restructuring, adding that it is for the court to decide whether to issue an injunction against the full 400 billion in borrowing.

The Speaker of the House, Sophon Zaram, said he will check the motion before submitting it to the court in the next three days.