The opposition on Wednesday described the 3.48-trillion-baht budget bill for fiscal 2024 as a "lame duck", decrying the vague wording used to explain its spending targets and complaining about its potential inefficiency, among other issues.
It also said the roughly five months left in which to implement the spending plan also appear to be insufficient for the government to be able to fully stimulate the economy as it hopes.
The fiscal year began on Oct 1 and will end this Sept 30.
Of the total budget, 2.53 trillion baht is allocated for fixed government annual expenditure, accounting for 72.8% of the total planned spending.
Another 118.36 billion baht (3.4%) has been designated to boost treasury reserves, 717.72 billion baht (20.6%) for investment spending and 118.32 billion baht (3.4%) for repaying loans. Of the loan repayments, 7.23 billion baht is for loans for state enterprise investments.
Speaking after a presentation by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on the details of the 2024 fiscal budget and spending plan, opposition leader and Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Chaithawat Tulathon said the presentation reminded him of the one given by ex-premier Prayut Chan-o-cha last year.
"They were exactly the same -- beautifully worded but too broad; abstract, dreadfully disorganised and lacking any sense of prioritisation and somewhat vague," said Mr Chaithawat.
When studying the details of the planned budget spending, he said he found no concrete indicators that could be used to assess how successful the planned spending of each ministry is at the end of the fiscal year.
Worse still, the ministries' spending plans are inconsistent with the government's policies, and what were claimed to be new projects requiring a new budget appear to be old ones these ministries were already implementing, he said.
"It's just old wine in new bottles," he said.
"In conclusion, the 2024 fiscal budget bill is full of bits of this and that. It is disorganised and lacks strategies or a clear target. It may seem good if judged by its cover, but if you look inside, nothing really aligns with the government's policies," he added.
"Every planned spending is claimed to be a budget for new investments, most of which are for financing a new road touted as a seemingly magical approach to make all the government's development strategies successful. But how?" he asked.
Several other opposition MPs who joined the debate on Wednesday, the first of the three-day debate, expressed a common concern that as the government would likely only have 40% of the full year left to implement the budget, it may fail to have the intended economic stimulus effect. They slammed the bill as a "lame duck".
One sticking point is that the Ministry of Justice has claimed its Department of Corrections needs a bigger budget to improve the care given to inmates so this can meet international standards, yet there is still a lack of transparency in the government's handling of convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been allowed to receive treatment outside prison for more than four months without a convincing explanation, Mr Chaithawat said.
The 10,000-baht digital money handout, a flagship policy of the Pheu Thai-led government, was also criticised as still lacking clarity as to where the 500 billion baht in funding would come from -- especially if the government's intention to pass a second bill allowing it to borrow such a substantial sum is rejected.
During his presentation of the planned spending in the new budget bill, Mr Srettha expressed confidence Thailand's economy would grow between 2.7% and 3.7% this year as forecast.