Emergency Decree Authorising the Ministry of Finance to Raise Loans to Solve Problems, to Remedy and Restore the Economy and Society as Affected by the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic, B.E.2563 (2020)

The grounds for promulgation of this Emergency Decree are as follows. Whereas at present, there is an outbreak of coronavirus disease in many countries around the world, including Thailand, and where the disease has thus been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, and as such disease is novel in nature from which there is currently no cure by way of medicine nor a vaccine for its prevention, leading to a high number of infected people globally and with a rapid increase in such numbers, and no clear indication of when the spread of the disease will cease. Additionally, the spread of this disease has caused both the global and the Thai economy to drastically and rapidly shrink, widely affecting persons of every profession, amounting to a public disaster negatively impacting the life and health of members of the public and seriously affecting the economic security of the country. Prior to this, the Government has disbursed the existing national budget in the implementation of various measures and ways to stop and control the spread of the disease and to assist and compensate those affected. Nevertheless, this has not been sufficient in stopping the spread of the disease or to assist and compensate affected persons in every sector, despite having adjusted budget expenditure plans to accommodate these expenses. As an initial estimation, there is express necessity for the use of one billion baht to solve problems, to remedy and to restore the economy which cannot be accessed by normal budgetary procedures, and thus constitutes to an emergency of unavoidable necessity for the purpose of maintaining he national economy and to alleviate the public disaster, it is therefore necessary to enact this Emergency Decree.