The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) on Thursday pledged to spur the country's economic growth with various projects, including injecting money into its old village fund, lowering energy costs and setting up a national energy resources organisation to handle natural gas and oil concessions.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, in his capacity as PPRP leader, on Thursday led the party's economic team in summarising the party's core economic stimulating plans and stressing its readiness to stimulate the economy further if it returns as the new government.
He also stressed the importance of national unity and peace, as this would allow the new government to focus entirely on improving the country's economy, which he said is the core task that would benefit all of the people in the country.
"If we can overcome political conflicts, I strongly believe the more than 60 million Thais will together be able to overcome poverty as well," he said.
Reviving the economy is one of the PPRP's seven core policies, said Gen Prawit.
Boosting the economy is a top priority of the party, said PPRP member Uttama Savanayana, adding that the party has economic stimulus packages which range from decreasing living costs through lowering energy prices to tackling household debts.
As for lifting the grassroots economy, the PPRP aims to inject 200,000 baht in funding into each village through the village fund, an old project that will be dusted off and used to strengthen community economies across the country, he said.
The village fund scheme will require around 100 billion baht of funding in total, he said.
Under the same scheme, prices of fertilisers will be subsidised and come down by about half, while farmers in about 8 million families nationwide will receive 30,000 baht each in funding to grow crops, he said.
Mingkwan Sangsuwan, another key figure in the PPRP's economic team, highlighted the importance of bringing down the high costs of living by lowering energy prices immediately, including cutting petrol prices by 18 baht per litre and diesel by 6.30 baht per litre.
The household electricity rate will become 2.50 baht per unit while that for the industrial sector will become 2.70 baht per unit, said Mr Mingkwan.
Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister and PPRP secretary-general Santi Promphat promised a new project to build a medium-speed rail link between Bueng Kan and the East, the location of the government's flagship Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) scheme.
Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala, another core member of the party's economic team, said funding sources for all these and other economic stimulus projects would include government budgets diverted from other less important projects and increased revenues expected from tax reform.
