Dr. Warong urges Deputy Prime Minister Aekniti to review Suriya's EV tractor project, alleging suspicious budget increase to 11 billion baht instead of the stated 8 billion, and criticizes the plan to let private companies manage collections from farmers again, fearing potential corruption.
At 09:00 on 20 Oct 2026 GMT+7 at the Parliament, Dr. Warong Dechkitvikrom, a party-list MP and leader of the Thai Pakdee Party, spoke about the 8 billion baht EV rice harvester purchase project. He expressed concern about Suriya Jungrungreangkit, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, whose project had shifted from EV rice harvesters to EV tractors with a budget of 8 billion baht to buy 2,543 EV tractors. After reviewing documents submitted to the 400 billion baht loan screening committee, he found the project budget increased to 11.677 billion baht for 3,720 EV tractors. He lamented that if approved, private companies would manage and collect payments from farmers, even though farmers refuse free tractors. Currently, over 80% of farmers already own tractors, mostly walk-behind types, integral to their way of life. Therefore, he calls on Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Aekniti Nitithanprapas, whose team now handles the matter with the Finance Ministry permanent secretary chairing the committee, to act in the interest of Thai farmers since the 11 billion baht will become debt to repay.
"The 11 billion baht is, in my words, wasted and squandered, with the public left to repay debts without any benefit to the farmers, who in fact reject this. I therefore urge Deputy Prime Minister Aekniti to send a signal to the Finance Ministry permanent secretary, as loan screening committee chair, to prevent this project from proceeding. If allowed, it will damage the credibility of this loan, which should be for economic recovery but will instead be seen as a loan for corruption," Dr. Warong said.