FPO predicts lag in budget expenditure

The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) conservatively estimates that a mere 60% of the 163-billion-baht mid-year budget will be drawn down this fiscal year, its chief says.

The Budget Bureau is currently approving projects for which funds from the supplementary budget have been requested, said FPO director general Krisada Chinavicharana.

The cabinet in December approved the 190-billion-baht mid-year budget, with the aim of injecting money into the economy, especially provincial areas, to spur growth and private investment.

Of the total, 27 billion baht will be used to fund the 2017 fiscal budget deficit, 100 billion will go to local development for 18 provincial clusters and the rest will go to village funds.

The Finance Ministry’s think tank in January revised its forecast for Thailand’s economic growth to 3.6% in 2017, up from 3.4%. That revision was based on the assumptions that export value in terms of dollars would rise by 2.5% and 65-70% of the supplementary budget would be doled out.

The government forecasts that 92.9% of the 2017 budget will be doled out, 78.8% of the annual investment budget will be drawn down and state enterprises will disburse 77.8% of their investment budgets.

Mr Krisada said the rest of the midyear budget will be taken out in the next fiscal year.

Separately, he said that domestic investment and consumption had improved in February, as reflected by a 6.3% increase in commercial pickup truck sales and a 3.4% rise in value-added tax collection.

The government’s revenue collection during the October-to-February period brought in around 1.01 trillion baht, exceeding the target by 14 billion.

The higher-than-targeted revenue collection could be attributed to greater income contribution from state enterprises and higher revenue collection by other state agencies.

Revenue generated by the three tax-collecting agencies — the Revenue Department, the Excise Department and the Customs Department — amounted to 901 billion baht for the five months to February, missing the target by 2.2%.