Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday his party planned to cut costs from the central budget, money allocated to CEO governors and government public relations policies, which would need Bt41 billion on a one-time spending and more than Bt44.4 billion annually.

"The money set aside for Prime Minister Thaksin to draw votes, had it been used correctly, would have covered free education for children. In the past five years, money buried in the budget by the Thai Rak Thai government amounts to Bt200.7 billion. So, we want to stick to the principle of putting people first. I am not talking about increasing funds but spending money that has been used wrongly on what is beneficial to people," he said.

The central budget is the funds approved by the Parliament for government agencies and state enterprises. The budget need not be assigned to any particular agency, and can be accessed without stating exactly what it must be used for. It's reserved for officials' pensions and other matters such as emergencies, natural disasters and so on.

The CEO governors' budget is assigned to governors for expenditure in their provinces.

Abhisit said the government led by Premier Thaksin Shinawatra allocated an unreasonably large sum of money for this over the past five years, because such spending didn't need parliamentary approval. So, the CEOs' budget was sometimes used ineffectively. Moreover, the government's PR campaigns often promoted the Thai Rak Thai Party.

The Democrats's slogan for the election is "People's Agenda, we put the people first". And cutting back on such schemes could save the government Bt66 billion, Abhisit said.

The Democrats said money saved from the central budget would amount to Bt35 billion and savings from the CEO Governors' budget Bt40 billion. Reducing the public relations budget by 15 per cent would leave Bt1 billion for new policies while reducing the government's "regular expenses" by 5 per cent could save Bt35 billion each year, he said.

If the Democrat government could suppress corruption and save 10 per cent of the government's investment budget, it would have a further Bt35 billion to spend, he said. However, Abhisit said he would keep a small amount for the central budget. Also, a Democrat government might pursue a deficit budget policy as a tool to stimulate the economy but not because of over-the-top spending, he said.

The party announced its People's Agenda policies last month. Some have been criticised as unrealistic.

The People Agenda focuses on reducing living costs, promoting free education for children and effective health services at a reasonable cost.

To reduce people's cost of living, the Democrat government would need an initial sum of Bt24 billion to establish a Sufficiency Economy Fund. It plans to set aside an average of Bt300,000 for each village nationwide.

Other measures such as an increase in the minimum wage, reducing oil and gas prices and trimming electricity fees wouldn't need the money from the national budget, he claimed.

Providing free education for children from kindergarten to high school would add Bt8.57 billion to the annual national education budget.

That would also mean an extra Bt14.1 billion each year for supplementary food programmes for pre-school children and their mothers, plus pregnant women, he said.

A Democrat government would also need Bt9.6 billion for

textbooks that school children

can borrow, he said.

Money needed to keep childcare centres across the country up and running would amount to Bt5.8 billion each year. The party's public health policies would need Bt7.4 billion, a one-time expense to improve hospitals and public health centres. And Bt15.9 billion would be spent each year on public health personnel, medicines and services for people under the universal health scheme.

The average budget for each person in the scheme would be increased from Bt1,659 to Bt2,000 while some people would be placed under the social security programme, he said.

Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Nation