"Weerayut" attacks "Anutin's government" for taking the economy down the wrong path — no other stimulus tools besides "Thai Helps Thai Plus" — lambasts it for tying Thailand's economy to data centres and racking up a massive import deficit. Meanwhile, Issariya points out that the government is using the wrong tool to address the car-tax dispute, arguing it must review the FTA and apply customs tariffs rather than rushing to raise excise taxes in reaction to pressure from the auto industry.
On 19 August 2026, at Parliament, the People's Party held its 10th Shadow Cabinet meeting, led by party leader Mr Nattaphong Ruengpanyawut, along with Mr Weerayut Kanchuchachat, Mr Issariya Phairiphayrit, and Mr Karunaphon Thiansuwan, on the agenda of assessing the government's economic performance based on second-quarter GDP figures and the People's Party's proposals for resolving economic problems and the automotive industry crisis.
Mr Weerayut Kanchuchachat said that the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) had announced Q2 GDP growth of 1.9% on a year-on-year basis, but that on a quarter-on-quarter basis it had in fact contracted by -0.2%, which on the whole reflects a rather unfavourable signal. This is somewhat understandable given that the country is in the midst of a Middle East war and an energy crisis, but he expressed concern over the view of the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, who believes the Thai economy is growing in the right direction — and asked what kind of policy adjustment should be made if it is not.
Looking beneath the surface, he said the government had let data centres in without requiring environmental impact assessments and without local content conditions. As a result, had data centre numbers been excluded, the Thai economy would have been even worse off — possibly in negative territory. The 13% investment expansion was almost entirely driven by machinery imports, and in the first six months this caused Thailand to run a trade deficit of minus one trillion baht, turning data centres into the new single pillar propping up the Thai economy. He warned that Thailand's economic future is being hung on data centres and an ever-growing import loss, and stressed that Thai industry and workers — already teetering on the edge of the abyss — have yet to receive any serious help, as manufacturing capacity in the second quarter fell to 57%, the lowest in 24 quarters and the lowest since the COVID period.
This reflects broader concern, including the number of unemployment insurance claimants under Section 33 — which increased by 50,000 in just a single quarter — showing that Thai industry and Thai workers are the ones being hurt, and being hurt more and more. In contrast, the investment side is seeing data centres mushrooming everywhere, which raises questions about environmental impact and how they actually connect to the broader Thai economy.
"On the issue of low figures, the Middle East situation will be a factor — and that is understandable — but the internal mechanism of driving growth by turning data centres into the pillar of the Thai economy invites the question of whether this government's bet on data centres will truly translate into a local economy, because the obvious beneficiaries are contractors and landowners, and there is no visible connection to the broader Thai economy. This is a contradiction. The government therefore needs other measures beyond Thai Helps Thai Plus, which focuses on stimulating consumption. It must take genuine action to fix Thai industry and Thai labour," Mr Weerayut said.
Mr Weerayut concluded by expressing concern that the government, in terms of the overall economy, is heading in the wrong direction, has not found its footing, and still has no tools other than the Thai Helps Thai Plus co-payment programme. He called on the government to prioritise labour and industry, and to deploy available policy tools with precision — particularly by having the courage to stand up to foreign countries, on geopolitics and local content, in ways that will benefit people within Thailand.
Mr Issariya Phairiphayrit, a party-list MP for the People's Party, said that over the past two weeks the public had seen news about Toyota, whose executives had spoken out about the unequal competition they face against foreign vehicle importers. It was clear that the government had been shaken significantly, leading to rapid measures, announcing plans to raise excise taxes on fully imported vehicles.
Although the government's objective — to give an advantage to automotive brands with domestic manufacturing plants so they can compete against imported brands — is understandable, he said it must also be asked whether raising excise taxes will actually work. The government's goal is to incentivise production within the country, but the tool it is using is excise tax. This means there is a possibility that certain foreign car brands that have no domestic production base and have no intention of establishing one may, upon being hit with higher excise taxes, simply withdraw or reduce their focus on the Thai market. He said raising excise taxes may not help at all.
Mr Issariya said he wanted to point out that the government should choose the right tool. Excise tax is a tax used to define categories of goods — such as alcohol, cigarettes, or automobiles. But the actual problem at hand is about imports from a specific country, namely China, and the more appropriate tool should be customs tariffs. As has been debated, the reason Chinese cars can be imported and sold in Thailand at prices cheaper than domestically produced ones stems from the China-ASEAN FTA. In the past, Thailand benefitted greatly from this FTA through exports to China or by importing raw materials from China to manufacture and re-export. But now the tide has turned, and Thailand is losing out to China across every front under this FTA — with the automotive case being the most prominent example.
"I think if the root of the problem is that Chinese cars are entering without paying import customs duties, then what we should fix — and what we should now be discussing openly — is whether this FTA and these customs tariff rates need to be revised. And if Chinese-brand cars come in to manufacture locally but still cause another problem — namely local content — where they set up a factory but bring in everything from China, including labour from China, that is another issue the government will have to scrutinise carefully. It is not enough to say that a car has been produced domestically and leave it at that, without caring what components are used," Mr Issariya said.
Mr Issariya said there is also a timing issue with the excise tax transition, because the current version of the automotive excise tax took effect on 1 January 2026, but was announced four years in advance — announced back in 2022 — and the Director-General of the Excise Department at that time was "Ekniti Nitithanpraphas," which means Deputy Prime Minister Ekniti knows this matter better than anyone. He asked why the government is only now panicking, when he has known about this for four years. When he revised the excise tax last time, he gave the private sector four years to adjust. But this time, as soon as news broke that Toyota might relocate, the government rushed to reverse course — wanting to act immediately. In terms of the government process, this may not be fair to the private sector either. Allowing an adequate transition period for the private sector to prepare is also important. Therefore, raising the automotive excise tax may be the wrong tool entirely for the government's stated goal of wanting to attract production bases to the country.
When asked about the situation in which cheap foreign goods are flooding in — which benefits consumers but, if prices are driven up, would hurt domestic industry — and what urgent proposals or measures the opposition has on this matter, Mr Weerayut said that rising imports are reflected first through the trade deficit, but the new wave is about equipment being imported to build data centres. Overall it reflects the inability of the Thai economy to compete. The change we want to see is on standards — if goods can be produced at high quality and low price, that is fine; that is what consumers deserve. But the past problem has been substandard goods sold through platforms that the central government does not go in to inspect. What is missing is standards enforcement, and if prices are competitive because standards are genuinely met, that is a different matter — but the problem that arises is when they are not.
When asked whether they are monitoring the 14th National Economic Development Plan, since its implementation could affect GDP, Mr Weerayut said the party is following it closely, and if it becomes clearer they will make another announcement. But currently, a four-to-five-year economic development plan is too distant — they want to see immediate measures. Thai industry has seen its numbers declining for 24 quarters, with manufacturing capacity continuously falling. This plan's framework is relatively long-term, but they want to see near-term measures — especially on the automotive sector, which clearly shows that without a clear guiding principle on how to develop this industry, there is no direction. That issue will not be found in an economic development plan but rather in the government's own strategy — what it intends to do and how Thailand will move forward.
