Lack of clarity resulted in EC rejection of power bill subsidy proposal
Power bill subsidies will have to wait for another week for approval from the Election Commission (EC), deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Monday.
Wissanu was responding to questions from the press regarding the EC’s rejection of the proposal last week. The election agency said the document failed to include mention of the proposal coming from a Cabinet resolution.
Wissanu said he was not in the cabinet meeting on April 25, when the decision was taken to seek approval from the EC before providing subsidies for the May electricity bills, and therefore did not have a chance to check the proposal.
“The Secretariat of the Cabinet was probably not familiar with the procedures for seeking approval from the EC and missed some details,” the deputy PM said. “I have resent the document to the commission and this should take about a week for reconsideration.”
The election law requires that a caretaker Cabinet seek the election watchdog’s permission before it implements projects that require funding. Without EC permission, it can seem as though the outgoing government is providing subsidies to woo support from voters.
The move seeks 11 billion baht from the central budget to fund the subsidies, which aim to help reduce people’s financial burden.
Under the measure, those who use 1-150 units of electricity will receive a reduction of 92.04 satang per unit (100 satang equals 1 baht). Those who use 151-300 units will get a reduction of 67.04 satang per unit.
