Latest figures add hope for 2013-14 growth, FPO says
Thailand could see its economy expand as projected for this and next year thanks to bulging treasury reserves and faster-than-expected government spending.
"The Finance Ministry will lean on agencies to supervise budget disbursements in fiscal 2014 to meet targets," Somchai Sajjapongse, director-general of the FPO and spokesman for the Finance Ministry, said yesterday.
Treasury reserves stood at a shade of Bt603.92 billion at the end of September, which was the end of fiscal 2013.
The government recorded a cash surplus of Bt152.62 billion in September, of which Bt2.22 billion was a surplus in the budget cash balance and Bt150.40 billion was a surplus in the non-budget cash balance. Government financing made up Bt20.50 billion of the shortfall, leaving a net surplus of Bt173.12 billion.
Although September showed a cash surplus, the overall state cash budget saw a deficit of Bt238.36 billion in fiscal 2013.
The end-September treasury-reserve balance of Bt603.92 billion was at a level that supported fiscal stability, according to the FPO.
In September, state collections came in at Bt236.55 billion, down 4.9 per cent from the same month of last year, while state expenditures went up 3.1 per cent to Bt234.33 billion.
Current expenditures in September rose 7.4 per cent to Bt186.04 billion.
Capital expenditures were down 26.2 per cent at Bt32.78 billion.
State expenditures from the previous fiscal budget increased 59.9 per cent to Bt15.52 billion from September last year.
September’s major state expenditures included the Public Debt Management Office’s Bt32.13-billion debt repayment, the Defence Ministry’s Bt8.57-billion expenses, the Education Ministry’s Bt8.07-billion subsidy and the Social Security Office’s Bt5.88-billion subsidy.
As of last month, the Finance Ministry’s receipts had advanced 9.1 per cent to Bt2.16 trillion on higher collections of corporate income tax, value-added tax and automobile excise tax.
State expenditures climbed 4.7 per cent on year to Bt2.40 trillion. Of that, Bt2.17 trillion was in the current fiscal year, amounting to 90.5 per cent of the total budget and up 1.1 per cent from last fiscal year. About Bt231.02 billion was from the previous fiscal year, up 57.3 per cent.
