Democrat Party asks govt to review populist programmes

BANGKOK, Dec 30 (TNA) - Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the major opposition Democrat Party, has asked the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to review several of its populist programmes on fears that they would hurt the national economy. Expressing his anxieties over the situation of the country’s economy in 2013 due to the government-sponsored populist programmes including an increase of daily minimum wage to 300 baht from January 1 in the rest of 70 provinces nationwide which could impact small-sized industries, the plan to raise the price of cooking gas from mid February and the rice pledging scheme, the former prime minister said the government-sponsored rice pledging programme has cost the state to lose about 200 billion baht annually. The government has to review the rice pledging programme because it affects the country’s monetary and fiscal policies as well as long-term investment, Mr. Abhisit said. Meanwhile, Democrat-listed MP Ong-art Klampaiboon told journalists that Miss Yingluck should change her style of working in 2013 and should help solve problems confronting the country such as bloody violence in the restive South. The violence has continued and become worsen but the prime minister still does not have a clear-cut solutions to the problem, said Mr. Ong-art. He also charged Miss Yingluck for having to listen solutions to the country’s problems from her elder brother ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in the bloodless coup in September 2006 and is currently living in self-imposed exile in overseas, paying little attention to solve an ongoing falling prices of agricultural products and rising inflation. Mr. Ong-art also charged the prime minister for attending only a few parliamentary sessions during 2012 which is about to end while hoping that she would change her style of working in the New Year. (TNA)