Thailand’s parliament early yesterday passed a US$3.35 billion stimulus package aimed at boosting the flagging economy after months of street protests and last year’s crippling airport seizures.
After 11 hours of debate between the Democrat Party-led government and the opposition, lawmakers voted just after midnight for the 116.7 billion baht (US$3.35 billion) supplementary budget for this fiscal year.
Thai House speaker Chai Chidchob said 238 lawmakers out of a total of 455 voted in favor of the bill, which now has to go through two more readings — largely a formality — before taking effect.
The package is a mixture of cash handouts for low earners, tax cuts, education loans, and subsidies for transport and utilities, which the government’s finance team says will stimulate consumer spending.
The Bank of Thailand has forecast economic growth at zero to 2 percent this year, with the weeklong shuttering of Bangkok’s two airports by protesters late last year and the global financial crisis taking a toll.
Critics of the stimulus package including ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have decried the plan as a short-term fix to a long-term problem.
Chalerm Yoobamrung, opposition lawmaker with the Thaksin-linked Puea Thai party, called the 2,000 baht handouts “advance vote buying” and said the package would not reach all sectors.
“The 16 policies to stimulate the economy — especially the 2,000 baht which will cover 9.2 million people — is advance vote buying. It is not true that other countries use these kind of measures,” he told the house.
The Democrat Party led by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power in a parliamentary vote last month after a court dissolved the Thaksin-linked People Power Party (PPP) less than a year after it won elections.
The court ruling brought an end to more than six months of protests against the PPP, which peaked with the Nov. 25 through Dec. 3 siege of Bangkok’s two airports, which battered tourism and the economy.
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