Badly timed release of BAAC exec’s interview misleading, says govt spokesman

The clip, which went viral, shows an interview with BAAC assistant manager Paisan Hongtong, in which he says: “If a large amount of money is used, there will definitely be an impact.”

This clip, though recorded a week earlier, was released on Wednesday, immediately after the government announced the funding sources for its digital wallet scheme. The government will be taking 172.3 billion baht from the BAAC.

Government spokesman Chai Wacharonke said on Friday that he believes the clip’s untimely release was aimed to mislead the public into believing that even BAAC executives are against the government’s plan to use BAAC funds as one of the sources for its digital wallet handout.

He said the intention was to imply that BAAC may not have enough funds to finance the scheme.

Chai also pointed out some irregularities, like the Paisan had given the interview one week before the government announced its plans. Hence, he said, at the time of the interview, the BAAC executive did not know that the government would use the bank as a funding source and how much it would take.

The interviewer had asked Paisan about the bank funding the digital wallet scheme, and the exec knew the bank did not have 500 billion baht to fund the scheme and responded accordingly.

Paisan later said that if he had known that the government would require only 172.3 billion baht from the BAAC, his response would have been different.

“As government spokesperson, I would like to inform the public of the truth so they can understand the true intentions of those who released the clip. We do not want the public to be misled by the deceitful tactics of malicious individuals who seek to undermine the government's good intentions in addressing economic challenges and improving people’s livelihoods,” Chai said.