The Democrat and Pheu Thai parties have raised concerns over the 2.57-trillion-baht 2015 budget from which the junta sharply cut the budget allocation for the rural economy.
NCPO chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha summarised the budget in a short speech to the NLA, which then passed it by unanimous vote without meaningful debate.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said Tuesday a major concern is that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has decided to halt farm product subsidies and budget allocations for other populist projects such as the village funds.
"This could disrupt the circulation of money in the economy, further lowering purchasing power, particularly of farmers who have already been hit by low crop prices," he said.
"This will make it difficult to stimulate the economy. Furthermore, the direction of economic stimulus plans through investment in infrastructure projects remain unclear," Mr Abhisit said.
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The NCPO earlier ordered the termination of the Small-Medium-Large (SML) village fund project, initiated by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, which required 5.7 billion baht in the 2015 fiscal budget; the fund project to assist community enterprises which required 3 billion baht; and the Regional Urban Development Fund which required 1.2 billion baht.
Abhisit: Budget should be cut, farmers need help.
Mr Abhisit called on the NCPO to review its policy of ending agricultural product price intervention since it would have severe effects. He urged the regime to boost farmers and local people's purchasing power in parallel with structural reforms such as production cost cuts.
The Democrat leader also said the structure of the 2015 Budget Bill, which sailed through the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Monday, is similar to past bills which included funds to boost the economy. But the key problem of the 2015 budget is that huge expenditures must shoulder the added burdens of populist policies.
For example, as much as 71 billion baht of the budget was earmarked to compensate the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives which paid in advance for rice-pledging scheme debts. Forty-two billion baht was set aside to repay the treasury reserves which were earlier used for the first-car subsidy scheme.
"We can see that at least 100 billion baht [in the 2015 budget] will be unproductive to the economy," Mr Abhisit said.
Fiscal burdens from the rice-pledging scheme are massive at over 300 billion baht, he said. A budget needs to be set aside for compensation for a further three to four years.
"This is the lesson learnt of populist policies which is that the taxpayer ends up paying for them," Mr Abhisit said.
Mr Abhisit called on the NLA's vetting committee to cut the budgets of individual projects by 10-20%. He pointed out that the NCPO chief once said this is possible if graft in government procurements was controlled.
The budget money saved can be allocated to support rural economic stimulus projects to build infrastructure instead, he said.
In addition, he asked that the committee resume the farm product guarantee scheme, initiated by his government, and increase budget injections to local administrations to boost the rural economy.
Mr Abhisit also demanded transparency from the working committee.
The NLA voted on Monday to accept in principle the 2015 budget bill worth 2.57 trillion baht. A 50-member panel was set up to scrutinise the bill but Narongchai Akrasenee, NCPO adviser on the economy, resigned.
Amnuay Klangpa, an ex-Pheu Thai Party MP for Lop Buri, agreed the budget could be trimmed by 20-30% or by at least 25 billion baht.
Panels with different fields of expertise should be set up to vet the bill, instead of relying on one big committee, he said.
He was not concerned that the 2.57-trillion-baht budget bill passed without challenge after the first reading but said it needed careful scrutiny in the vetting process.
Kusumalwati Sirikomut, a former Pheu Thai MP for Maha Sarakham, said the panel should exercise discretion in considering the bill and think of the people.
"Funds from which people now benefit such as the village and SML funds should be budgeted. Those for local administrations should also be allocated consistent with decentralisation principles," she said.
"The NCPO strayed from those principles when they appointed members to the local bodies instead of allowing people to elect their own representatives," she said.
"The defence budget should be trimmed. More should be given to education and economic development. Most importantly, budgets for government officials' overseas observation trips should be cut," she said.
The NCPO's deputy head of economic affairs, Gen Chatchai Sarikalya, who also chairs the vetting committee, told the committee it must strictly observe the Budget Bureau's regulations in scrutinising state agencies' budgets with training, seminars, advertisements, and overseas trips.
Any budget overlaps must be cut, he said. Cost projections for state agencies' investment projects should also be based on market standards and make comparisons between similar projects at other agencies.
Meanwhile, NCPO spokesperson Pattamaporn Rattanadilok na Phuket said Tuesday the NCPO allocated 3.42 billion baht to pay the Corrections Department's food-related debts in 2013 and 2014.