2014 'budget disbursement delay acceptable'
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No impact on public investment for first 3 months: Bureau
A likely delay in the disbursement of the 2014 budget should not affect public investment in the first three months of the fiscal year, as the Cabinet has approved a Bt570-billion investment in state enterprises for the period, the Budget Bureau said.
After a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Budget Bureau director Woravit Jampeerat said that though the 2014 budget may not be announced in time for the start of the 2014 fiscal year on October 1, it should not affect investments in the first three months of the fiscal year. The budget bill is still being considered by the Constitutional Court.
He said the delay should have little effect because the government had accelerated Bt120 billion in disbursement for agencies asking for relaxation of fiscal 2013 expenditure.
However, if the budget bill is delayed much longer, that could affect disbursement.
According to Government Spokesman Teerat Ratanasevi, the Budget Bureau explained that according to the Constitution, the previous fiscal budget could be disbursed for use in the current fiscal period and that would not affect regular disbursement of state agencies.
The Cabinet also approved a state-enterprise budget of Bt1.82 trillion for operations and Bt576.89 billion for investment for fiscal 2014.
State enterprises are expected to record net profit of Bt76.44 billion in the 2014 fiscal year.
It is hoped that they will post net profit of Bt271.99 billion on investments totalling Bt2.35 trillion during fiscal years 2015-2017.
At the Cabinet meeting, the National Economic and Social Development Board proposed eight policy recommendations for regulating budget implementation of state enterprises.
State enterprises would disburse their investment budgets as targeted under supervision of their ministries, and investment projects and plans would have to follow proper and clear procedures with acceptable social, community and environmental impacts, and with public participation.
The necessity for being state enterprises should be reviewed by the Commerce Ministry and the oversight ministries, while Commerce’s supervision of state enterprises, which are limited public companies, should be improved to cope with current situations.
While rehabilitation plans must be sped up, research and development must be paid more attention, with at least 3 per cent of state enterprises’ annual net profit put into R&D.
In the broadcast and telecom fields, Universal Service Obligation plans must be approved in principle by state enterprises’ executive boards with budget disbursement under the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s conditions.
State enterprises need to improve their productivity and work efficiency and reduce production costs with proper administration, the NESDB said.
