The Bhumjaithai Party is planning to offer a 40-baht daily public transport pass that would be valid on Bangkok's electric train routes in an effort to make commuting more affordable for the capital's residents, according to the party's election director for Bangkok, Buddhipongse Punnakanta.
He said although the city's electric rail lines were developed to make commuting more affordable, fares for rides along the city's skytrain lines and subway network are out of reach for some residents of Bangkok and its surrounding provinces -- especially when the trip involves more than one rail line.
As such, Bhumjaithai, which currently supervises the Transport Ministry, is planning to offer a 40-baht daily transport pass, which would give its holder access to unlimited rides along the city's electric rail network for a 24-hour period.
At present, the cost of travelling from one station to the next is about 15 baht.
The pass would bring the cost of commuting to around 800-1,000 baht a month, which will motivate more people to use electric trains, thereby helping to reduce the fine dust pollution.
The party's one-day-pass election pledge was the product of extensive brainstorming by transport experts and the party's new generation of politicians, according to Mr Buddhipongse.
Pocket assault
Meanwhile, the Chartpattanakla Party has outlined four key issues which are affecting people's pockets the hardest.
Worawut Oonjai, the party's deputy leader, said with regard to the country's structural problems, there are a number of loose ends which need to be tied urgently.
First, he said, the party will focus on tackling high energy prices, which have consequently increased the cost of operating a business. There is room to fine-tune the practices within the oil refinery industry to help reduce the price of fuel, he said.
In addition, electricity bills, which have gone up in the past few months due mainly to the rise of the "fuel adjustment tariff", known as the Ft, by 5% during the May-August period, must be dealt with.
Second, the party is pushing for the credit bureau to abolish the practice of blacklisting, which has been blamed for preventing many people from accessing credit. Instead, a credit scoring system -- which is considered based on a number of wide-ranging factors, as opposed to a person's default history -- should be adopted to determine a person's creditworthiness, he said.
Third, Chartpattanakla wants people making 40,000 baht or less a month to be exempted from paying income tax. Although the measure will cut the government's tax revenue by 21 billion baht a year, it would help many people cope better with the rising cost of living, he said.
Fourth, the work of the government needs to be digitalised to improve coordination between state agencies and prevent corruption.
Learn and earn
Undergraduate students must be given the opportunity to earn an income while they study, according to the latest Pheu Thai Party campaign manifesto.
Nahathai Tiewpai-ngam, chairwoman of the party's policy on education and human resource development, said the policy was designed around a life-long learning concept.
The policy involves distributing a computer tablet with free internet access to each child to widen access to education.
A comprehensive digital education platform called "Learn to Earn" will be put in place, which will complement the party's push to create earning opportunities for undergraduates.
According to Ms Nahathai, the policy will increase students' financial independence while cutting back on their parents' spending on their tuition fees and related expenses.
Also, starting from Grade 1, students will learn English, Chinese and coding, to get them used to problem-solving and computational thinking, Ms Nahathai added.
Solar farm
The Chartthaipattana Party has floated a proposal to have private businesses invest in solar farms to generate clean energy for households, the surplus from which would be sold to authorities, its leader said on Thursday.
The money earned from the sale would go to the private investor, the households and the local administrative organisations, said the party leader, Varawut Silpa-archa.
As a long-term measure to ease high electricity prices, he said the government's contracts which award companies the right to produce and supply power must be scrutinised to see whether or not they are fair to the state.
He noted the contracts have a direct bearing on the electricity price structure affecting households.
