Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Thursday defended the 3.48-trillion-baht budget bill for the 2024 fiscal year, saying every part of the government's spending plan was supported with a clear reason.
He was responding to an opposition member, who described the bill on the first day of the House debate on it Wednesday as a "lame duck".
"I'm sure he was referring to the Ministry of Commerce when he served as the commerce minister. And I'm also confident that Phumtham Wechayachai, the incumbent commerce minister, has performed far better than his predecessor given what he achieved during his four years in office," said Mr Srettha.
He appeared to be referring to Democrat Party list MP Jurin Laksanawisit, the former commerce minister, who is now an opposition MP and who denigrated the government's bill as a lame duck on Wednesday.
Mr Jurin on Thursday responded to Mr Srettha's jibe, saying he described the bill in this way because it is unlikely to become an effective or successful mechanism for stimulating the economy as claimed because the 3.48 trillion baht would have to be spent within the space of five months.
"When I was commerce minister, the ministry successfully inked many free trade agreements, possibly the highest number ever," he said.
As for an observation made by Move Forward Party (MFP) MPs that the government inherited not only state governing power from the former Prayut Chan-o-cha regime but also its rather conservative way of managing the state budget, Mr Srettha said the present government holds the interests of the public above other factors.
The government is doing whatever is good for the public regardless of whether a policy was initiated by previous governments, he said.
Responding to a remark that he had not honoured his vow to avoid borrowing money to fund the 10,000-baht digital wallet handout, Mr Srettha said it has long been clear the government would borrow.
On the second day of the three-day debate on Thursday, some micro opposition parties targeted the 5.11 billion baht earmarked for the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
Surathin Phichan, a New Democracy Party list MP, said this part of the budget should be cut, saying Isoc does little but repetitive tasks.