Thai Govt Puts Onus On Rivals - Vote On Budget Bill Delayed

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2011 BUDGET DEBATE

Govt puts onus on rivals

By The Nation

Pheu Thai will have to finish final reading of Budget Bill by Thursday or it will be forwarded to Senate in original form

The Abhisit government yesterday played down uncertainties facing the Budget Bill after the ball was thrown back into the opposition's court with House deliberation on the bill postponed to next week.

The Pheu Thai Party now has no choice but to complete the second and third readings of the bill by next Thursday, or the draft legislation will be forwarded to the Senate in its original form, and changes it had sought during the vetting process will become a waste.

The opposition party signalled its intention not to let that happen.

The postponement, apparently caused by poor time management, would also politically benefit the Bhum Jai Thai Party, which was about to be attacked on the Bt200-billion Interior Ministry budget.

With next week's session not slated for live TV broadcast, the opposition would have less incentive to go all-out against the ministry. Even if Pheu Thai pulls no punches next week, Bhum Jai Thai will be thankful for the considerably less publicity for next week's debate.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva confirmed that the postponement had no negative impact on the government, as the bill had passed its first reading. He cited the Constitution, which stipulates that if a bill that has passed its first reading cannot be approved by the Lower House within 105 days, it will be deemed as good as having received the Lower House approval and can then be sent to the Senate.

"There will be no legal problem, because the Constitution states clearly that if the 105-day time frame passes, it must be considered that the bill has been approved by the House," Abhisit said.

Witthaya Kaewparadai, the government's chief whip, said the opposition would have all the time in the world to finish the Budget Bill debate next week. This week has seen the opposition attack the integrity of the bill, which it decried as smacking of a payback by the government to the military after the successful crackdown on the red shirts.

The opposition will have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to complete the debate, after which the Senate will have 20 days to deliberate the bill. To protect vetted articles and prevent resurrection of the original bill, the opposition will not be able to drag its feet and will have to make sure the bill passes the final reading in time.

"I think it will take just one more day," said Pheu Thai MP Somsak Kiatsuranont. "We have no intention of rocking the boat. If we do, we can drag it out for 32 days, because the bill has 32 articles."

Opposition MPs defended their speakers who spent more than allocated time attacking the bill over the past three days, before the debate was adjourned because of the Muslim fasting ceremony, which preoccupied many lawmakers. The debate was longer than expected because this bill contained so many suspicious spending plans, they said.

The government side, meanwhile, denied that the postponement was a tactic to blunt the opposition's strategy of making a censure debate out of the budget deliberation. "To extend the debate by three more days only goes to show how generous this government is, despite the opposition's attempts to bring up many non-related issues in the debate," said Witthaya.

He added that the government would not have to take political responsibility if the Budget Bill could not pass its final reading in time. "That will be the failure of the House of Representatives, not the government," he said.

There had been attempts by both the government and opposition whips earlier yesterday to finish the deliberation in time, but there were simply too many articles left to be debated. It was also tentatively agreed by the lawmakers that the next Budget Bill would need at least a four-day deliberation for the second and final readings.

-- The Nation 2010-08-21