Voters are being urged to evaluate the financing of campaign promises and determine if they will be a fiscal burden as the March 24 general election campaign is flooded with pledges to improve public welfare.
Finance permanent secretary Prasong Poontaneat said laws are in place to govern state spending to ensure fiscal discipline, so not every spending initiative proposed by parties can be implemented. In the current fiscal year, there is little room for the government to spend on those schemes, he said, adding that budget spending for the 2020 fiscal year is being planned and only 2% of that expenditures is available to finance new schemes.
"No matter how many welfare scheme policies are introduced, there is a cap on government spending. So when the funds are limited, not every policy can be put into practice. A family can't afford to eat out for every meal," he said.
A new government will have about 2%-3% of the 3.3-trillion-baht budget to spend on new schemes, or about 100 billion baht, he said.
However, Mr Prasong said while there are laws to maintain fiscal discipline and avoid budget crises, the public is encouraged to examine if campaign platforms put forward by parties will cause a fiscal burden in the future and if they are necessary.
He said the Finance Ministry has to find ways to pay for new spending plans and one of the measures is to increase the efficiency in tax collections especially from e-commerce businesses which are booming.
His warning comes as the election is being fought on the issue of public welfare. Political parties have rolled out what are being considered as populist programmes to woo votes and many have proposed trimming military spending to finance their campaign pledges.
Reacting to Mr Prasong's comment, economists encouraged parties to propose ideas of state welfare policies as well as how to finance the policies.
Anusorn Tamajai, dean and assistant professor at Rangsit University's faculty of economics, said the 20-year national strategy and the State Financial and Fiscal Discipline Act should not be used to limit the ability of parties to implement their policies after the election.
It is important for parties to identify a budget for the policies they propose, and carry out those policies, such as tax reform and reducing military spending, if they take power, he said.
"In the state welfare system, the proportion of government's tax income must be at least 40-50% of the GDP, and the state welfare expenses account for 25-30% of GDP as the minimum. Meanwhile, Thailand's tax income is only 15-18% of GDP [currently]," he said.
Similarly, Somchai Jitsuchon, a research director at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said government budget allocations deserve revision. Priorities should be set and ways to increase state tax income should be explored.
Besides the military's, the education budget can also be cut in future due to decreasing birth rates. Many taxes could be increased including an assets and building tax, he said.
"We have sources of money and the people have the capacity to pay more as the income disparity is huge nowadays," he said.
"It's about political will. We don't have to limit ourselves," he said.
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