Sirikanya Exposes Government Sneaking 18 Billion Baht Borrowed Funds into Welfare Card Distribution
Deputy Pheu Thai MP Sirikanya Tansukul alleged the government improperly diverted 18.8 billion baht from emergency relief borrowing to fund welfare card benefits that should come from regular budgets, accusing authorities of misusing crisis
May 20, 2026 – Sirikanya Tansukul, a Pheu Thai party list MP and deputy party leader, posted a message with images on Facebook regarding the Cabinet's approval of the 'Thailand Helps Thailand Plus' project. The attached documents showed that under a 400 billion baht borrowing decree, approximately 18.8 billion baht was allocated to a program supporting low-income earners holding state welfare cards—roughly 13 million people—to continue receiving state welfare benefits through the end of fiscal year 2569.
Sirikanya accused the government of improperly redirecting emergency relief funds into regular operating expenses. She alleged that the 18.8 billion baht, which should have come from standard annual budgets, was secretly diverted from the People's Fund. According to Cabinet resolutions, these welfare benefits—such as 300 baht assistance payments, utility costs, and transportation allowances—should normally be funded from regular annual budgets and have nothing to do with energy crisis relief.
She noted that because the government budgeted only 30 billion baht when 50 billion baht was actually needed, there wasn't enough money for welfare payments in fiscal 2569. "It's bold of the government to use 200 billion baht in emergency energy crisis relief loans to cover regular government expenses, which should normally come from annual operating budgets," Sirikanya stated. "This clearly deviates from the original purpose. So the question is: was this loan meant to help suffering citizens, or to solve the government's budget problem?"
