People’s Party MPs propose cutting the budget of the Ministry of Public Health, criticizing the budget request for World Expo Osaka to do roadshows, but private hospitals get customers instead, pointing out that the budget allocation is still not appropriate, the issue of the shortage of medical personnel still exists, and exposing that the Ministry of Industry has set a budget of 289 million for catering and chef training, hiring 12 million for influencers to promote fashion image.
Reporters reported that in the House of Representatives meeting, considering the draft bill (Bill) on the annual budget expenditure for fiscal year 2025, the budget of 3.75 trillion baht, reduced by 7,824,398,500 baht, the second reading is the third day, with Mr. Wan Muhammad Noor Matha, the Speaker of the House, as the chairman of the meeting. He began considering Section 25, the budget of the Ministry of Public Health and its supervised agencies, the budget of 53,417,886,600 baht, with Mr. Sahasawat Khumkhong, Chonburi MP, Pr
achachon Party, discussing that the part that was questionable was the part of the Department of Medical Support, which is a project called Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai, with a budget request of 555 million baht. This project is an ongoing project with a total budget of 867 million baht, which has been requested since 2023-2026. The said event is a rotation of events around the world and Thai products are brought to show at this event. But what I’m concerned about is that this event was organized in 2025, but in 2026, they still requested a budget of over 200 million baht. But do you know that when we go to show, only private hospitals benefit, but they use our tax money to go on roadshows? But when you look at other budgets in the ministry, like the Department of Medical Support, which got a very small budget, and the National Vaccine Center, which got a huge budget of 40 million baht, this means that we prioritize going on roadshows to get people to come for treatment at premium private hospitals in Thailand more
than taking care of their health or producing vaccines.
While state hospitals currently have problems from the new NHSO’s work plans, causing state hospitals to be in debt, some of which are behind on paying medical personnel. This is a budget allocation that prioritizes the World Expo, where the people who benefit the most are private hospitals. If we allocate the budget like this, when will our public health system survive? Therefore, I would like to propose that the World Expo project be cut in 2025, at 555 million baht.
Mr. Ekkarat Udom-Amnuay, MP for Bangkok, Prachachon Party, discussed that the ministry requested a budget of 53,417,886,600 baht, but the committee requested to cut the budget to 53,243,625,100 baht for the health innovation project, which requested a budget of 61 million baht. He viewed that it was not logical to develop the chatboard and LINE OA of Mor Prom, which requested a budget of 20 million baht, and was given the opportunity to develop the system. If we look at other ministries,
the purchase of the copyright and development of LINE OA cost only 7 million baht. Therefore, he viewed that setting a budget of 20 million baht for LINE OA development was too high. He also noted that most of the ministry’s budget disbursements were distributed to various provinces, but they were still concentrated in only a few agencies. The budget used to develop personnel was inappropriate. Right now, we are short of medical personnel in all sectors. Therefore, the budget of the Ministry of Public Health and the NHSO have problems. However, while the various departments that perform their functions still have extravagant activities, he requested to reduce the budget.
However, the meeting finally agreed with the amendment of the committee and passed the consideration of the said section and proceeded to consider Section 26, Ministry of Industry, budget of 3,147,733,200 baht, by Mr. Nattapol Towijakchaikul, Chiang Mai MP, Prachachon Party (Prachachon), discussed and raised the observation to cut the budget
of the soft power project of the Department of Industrial Promotion, 6 projects, budget of 762,386,000 baht, divided into 4 food projects and 2 fashion projects, which can reduce the fat to save the budget, especially the 1 Village 1 Chef project, budget of 468 million baht, found that the cost of catering food, snacks and drinks was 289 million baht or 60% of the project from the target of 17,000 people, which was later adjusted to 15,000 people.
Mr. Nattapol continued that while the two fashion projects, with a budget of 110 million baht, namely the 50 million baht fashion personnel development project, used a budget of 30 million baht for expenses for workshops to present content, and another project to promote the fashion image, 60 million baht, used a budget of 12 million baht for hiring influencers to join in creating content, these expenses seem excessive, even though they can reduce fat.
After a full discussion, the meeting voted to approve Article 26 with 287 votes in favor, 152 against, and 2 abst
entions.
Source: Thai News Agency