The Election Commission (EC) is expected to spend a week considering an 11-billion-baht subsidy on household electricity bills proposed by the government, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said.
Approved by the cabinet on April 25, the proposal was rejected by the poll regulator on April 28, according to a source.
After reviewing the government’s proposal, the source said the EC could not approve it as the Secretariat of the Cabinet failed to inform the EC of a cabinet resolution that approved the allocation of around 11 billion baht in subsidies under Section 169 of the constitution.
The section stipulates that any budget allocation for emergencies approved by an outgoing cabinet after a House dissolution must be endorsed by the poll agency first.
So the documents have been sent back to the government. The EC has not received a complete set of documents from the Secretariat of the Cabinet yet, said the source.
Mr Wissanu said on Monday that the cabinet initially believed that it should seek approval from the EC first before proceeding with the proposed subsidy.
But since the EC insisted that the cabinet must also send its resolution on the matter to the EC, the cabinet then resubmitted the cabinet resolution, along with a justification for its proposal, Mr Wissanu said, adding that the EC is expected to spend about a week considering the proposal.
Under the plan, the power subsidy would be extended for another four months from this month until August.
It would only apply to households that consume less than 300 units per month.
Those that consume 1-150 units a month would get a reduction of 92.04 satang per unit while those using 151-300 units would be given a reduction of 67.04 satang per unit.
About 7.6 billion baht would be drawn from the 2023 budget for emergency purposes to finance the plan. It is estimated that 18.36 million households would benefit.
Another measure to help people with costly power bills is a proposed reduction of 150 baht before VAT to households using no more than 500 units per month, valid for May's billing only.