The Election Commission (EC) cannot proceed with the government's proposed plan to allocate more than 11 billion baht to subsidise low-income earners for another four months to help with their power bills due to a legal hitch.
A source said the proposal was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday.
However, the matter must be sent to the EC for consideration, as under Section 169 of the constitution any budget allocation for emergencies approved by an outgoing cabinet after a House dissolution must be endorsed by the poll agency first.
But after reviewing the government's proposal, the source said the EC cannot approve the proposal as the Secretariat of the Cabinet failed to inform the cabinet of the resolution that approved the allocation of around 11 billion baht in subsidies under Section 169.
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.
Under the plan, the power subsidy would be extended for another four months from May 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 only.
