SURIN - Local goverment bodies in the Northeast are threatening to mobilise up to 100,000 demonstrators in Bangkok next week to protest against the government's refusal to give them a larger share of the national budget.
The threat comes after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra brushed aside their demand for an extra 16 billion baht in the next fiscal budget.
Ms Yingluck said the 2014 Budget Bill has been approved by the cabinet, leaving no room for changes.
The network of local bodies claims their current combined budget of 625.6 billion baht, or about 27.2% of the national budget, is not adequate to fulfil the government's decentralisation policy.
Surin provincial administrative organisation (PAO) hosted a meeting yesterday of local Northeast administrations to discuss further moves. About 500 people attended the meeting.
The Federation of PAOs in the Northeast chairman Chaimongkol Chairop said the planned protest next Tuesday was a signal that the people of the Northeast would not be fooled.
He said the government had promised to increase the budget for local administrative bodies by 16 billion baht during talks on Friday.
"So it was an empty promise. Next Tuesday we will gather at Government House and this time we will wear black," he said.
Surin PAO chairman Kittipat Rungthanakiat said the protesters would camp out in front of Government House for "as long as it takes".
"We will be ready for a prolonged protest. The government owes us an answer," he said.
Mr Kittipat said the federation's move was not politically motivated.
He said local administrative organisations in the Northeast need extra funds to invest and improve infrastructure, adding: "We aren't doing it for ourselves, but for the people who deserve better."
The budget issue was also raised at a meeting of Central and Eastern local administrative bodies in Ayutthaya yesterday. Ayutthaya PAO chairman Chatree Yuprasert said it was time for local bodies to have a say in budget allocation.
Despite the establishment of the Office of Decentralisation to Local Government Organisation, Mr Chatree said the budget for local bodies was still being prepared by the Budget Bureau, the Fiscal Policy Office and the National Economic and Social Development Board.
"That's not fair to the local organisations which are responsible for communities nationwide," he said.
The government is required to eventually set aside 35% of the national expenditure budget for local administration organisations at all levels under the Decentralisation Law that took effect in 1999. That goal has never been achieved, with administrations pleading budget restraints and seemingly reluctant to decentralise power.