Junta defends pay rise
The junta Wednesday defended themselves from a controversial pay rise saying that that the budget is allocated from the budget of the CNS.
Council for National Security spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd held a press conference Wednesday, explaining that only 128 out of 423 received the double rate hike. The total amount of the hike is only Bt 268,950 of total junta budget Bt1.2 billion. He explained that some of military officials have been transferred from their former units to the Secretariat of the junta office, therefore, they were awarded the pay hike, totaling between 15 to 30 per cent of their old salaries. The CNS chairman Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin yesterday said eight CNS members including himself were excluded from the pay raise. "None of us gets extra pay," he said. Sansern also compared the total of budget which spends to the coup makers about Bt1.2 billion with the tax evasion of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra kids - Panthongtae and Pinthongta. "The CNS budget is only one tenth of the tax evasion of Thaksin children. The rise is benefit for the country but the corruption money in the last government is for themselves, so the people must consider carefully," said the junta spokesman. The extra hire has been approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday which requested by the Council for National Security chief in March. The Nation
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