Two former Thai prime ministers have lined up against a plan to pull the earmarked “sin tax” money that funds ThaiHealth and Thai PBS into the annual government budget. Chuan Leekpai and Abhisit Vejjajiva, both Democrat Party list MPs, say the change would threaten the independence and continuity of the two organisations. Thai PBS World reported their positions.
Abhisit: guaranteed funding is the point
Abhisit, the party’s current leader, said both bodies were set up to run independently, with revenue that is guaranteed so they can carry out their mandates and give the public a real way to take part. Tie that money to the yearly budget, he warned, and their credibility and public participation could suffer.
There is a second worry. Advocacy campaigns run through the state bureaucracy could look like the government of the day dictating policy, rather than projects built together with civil society.
If ThaiHealth is seen as getting too much, Abhisit argued, the government has other levers. It could lower the budget ceiling, strengthen oversight or review the foundation’s reserves, without moving its revenue into the general budget and disrupting its work. He also pressed ThaiHealth to share more detail on how it hands out grants to other organisations, saying openness is needed to keep public confidence.
Chuan: lessons from earlier projects
Chuan, a former party leader, spoke a day before the report. He opposed the Bhumjaithai Party’s proposal to amend the law governing ThaiHealth and called the dedicated funding model crucial for long-term public health problems. A foundation that depends on government money could see its work disrupted, he said, because a government’s priorities may differ from its own.
He pointed to history. Projects have lost momentum after changes of government because incoming administrations did not want them seen as a rival’s achievement, he said, citing the double-track railway projects and the elderly living allowance scheme.
Chuan was not offering a blank cheque. ThaiHealth takes 2% of designated sin tax revenue and now receives more than 4 billion baht a year, and he said it should face more public scrutiny. It should welcome criticism, he said, improve its performance in visible ways and focus on clearly defined problems such as diabetes. He added that the government and ThaiHealth should hear each other out and put the public interest first, but the government should not interfere or cut funding in ways that threaten the foundation’s stability.
