The House of Representatives rejected a transport bill proposed by the People's Party (PP) that would allow local administrators to operate transport services independently and approve operations by other transport services.
The bill was proposed by PP list-MP Surachet Pravinvongvuth and was considered during the Aug 21 meeting of the House of Representatives presided over by Deputy House Speaker Pichet Chuamuangpan.
However, the vote on the bill was postponed to Wednesday, and the House voted 251 to 151, with two abstentions, to veto it.
Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party list-MP Anucha Burapachaisri previously expressed his stance against the bill at the Aug 21 House meeting.
He said local administrative organisations currently hold the status of "operators" of transport services as they can request a licence to operate transport services independently in their areas.
Such a licence also allows private companies to replace local administrative organisations as transport service operators, he said.
Mr Anucha explained that if the bill was approved, a conflict of interest would occur as it would grant chief executives of provincial administration organisations (PAOs) the status of "regulators" with the authority to allow transport services to operate in the provinces.
Therefore, the bill would allow local administrators to act as operators and regulators at the same time, which is different from the norm, he added.
Meanwhile, PP posted on its Facebook page after the vote result for the bill came out, saying, "Today, millions of people's dreams of using public transport that is 'high-quality, affordable and easily accessible' haven't yet reached the first step of becoming true. However, we'll keep pushing for public transport for everyone until we succeed."
