Looking at the general government debate, it’s still too early.

Parliament, "Lertrat" ??reveals that the Senate is set to set up a budget committee for Budget 67 tomorrow, working in parallel with MPs, looking at the general government debate as still too early. Pointing out that the previous government had been in existence for 4 years and still had not seen the Senate discuss it. Gen. Lertrat Rattanawanit, a member of the Senate (Senator), revealed that because the draft Budget Expenditure Act For fiscal year 2024, the process is considered very slow. This leaves little time to work. As scheduled in early April Must pass the House of Representatives and must be sent to the Senate for complete consideration within 9-10 April in order to present it to the King around April 17. The time frame for the Senate to consider it is very little, only 6-7 days. Therefore, the Senate President Therefore, the idea was to set up a committee to consider the draft. Budget Act for 2024 in the Senate Tomorrow morning (January 9), there will be 41 people, both from the committee, from t he Whip and 5 outside experts, and will begin meeting from next Monday (January 15) in parallel with the committee. Committee of the House of Representatives In order to help government agencies conveniently provide parallel explanations. Gen. Lertrat expects that around March 20, the Senate committee will finish its consideration. together with the committee of the House of Representatives, then entered into the amendment and bring it to the Senate to open the budget debate on April 9th ??in order to provide enough facts and details. Now the detailed documents have been gradually distributed. For the overall budget of 2024, General Lertrat said that although there are many limitations, But the government was able to push the budget up to 3.48 trillion baht. The first issue is that an investment budget of just 20% may not be enough to push the country out of the problem, including pushing GDP to 5% as the government hopes. With the allocated budget, it may still be too little. Including the government's po licy focus is not reflected in the budget as it should. Most of the total budget will increase 9% from last year. Therefore it is distributed throughout. Therefore, pushing for various policies such as the digital wallet project You have to rely on external mechanisms such as the Money Loan Act. Therefore, we can only hope that the budget for 2025 will come out soon. There will be a clearer direction. The trend of digital wallets We will have to wait until tomorrow (Jan. 9) when the government will come out and clarify that. What is the opinion of the Council of State? But there are still many parties who disagree. When the government came up with this policy, it may still have been in a state of economic crisis. Therefore stimulate the economy by giving money to the people to use. which many countries in the world do 'But to date, the economic crisis is still not that bad. Various inflation It is not as expected by world economists. Therefore, taking 500,000 million baht and giving it to the people If next year or the year after there is a crisis, it will be a problem. Therefore, I would like the government to think again about whether to proceed with this project or not,' said General Lertrat. As for the case where the Senate is preparing to include a list of names requesting to open a general debate without voting according to Section 153 of the Constitution, Gen. Lertrat said that right now it is still not in shape. And I still haven't seen details about what most senators are interested in. Therefore, we must ask for clarity first. Because the names of 84 senators must be used to sign in order to open the debate. which is not a little Personally, I think that opening a discussion right now is still too early. Let's end this fiscal year first. But they would probably go first as well. As for whether or not it would be the launch of a lance by the Senate or not, General Lertrat jokingly replied, 'I don't have a lance to throw away. Previously, I had talked with some senator friends who said that the previou s government had worked for 4 years, why didn't the senator open a discussion? This government has been working for more than 3 months. Instead, they have opened a debate and have to look at the issues. whether to use this section or not,' Gen. Lertrat Said. Source: Thai News Agency