Red Line budget hiked by almost Bt3bn to pay tax
The Cabinet has approved a budget increase of 2.9 billion baht for the State Railway of Thailand (SRT)’s Dark Red Line (Bang Sue Grand Station-Rangsit).
The budget will be hiked from 93.950 billion baht to 96.868 billion baht to cover additional tax burdens, said government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul.
The increased burdens come from extra VAT accrued in switching loan funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to domestic borrowing, VAT and import duty on train stock, and exchange rate fluctuations in yen – the currency used to pay the contractor.
The additional tax expenses had added 2.917 billion baht to the Dark Red Line budget, Traisuree said.
The Cabinet also approved an additional SRT domestic loan of 660 million baht to pay import duty for project materials.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry was tasked with providing funding of 7.985 billion baht for the Red Line projects – 7.078 billion baht for the Dark Red Line and 906 million baht for the Light Red Line (Bang Sue-Taling Chan).