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The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) took three hours to give a green light to an additional expenditure budget totalling Bt56 billion.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said the government last fiscal year earned additional revenue from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s auction of fourth-generation telecom bandwidth and agreed to use this windfall to drive national reform and strengthen the country’s foundations.

Of the additional budget, no more than Bt47.66 billion will be for expenditure of public agencies, state enterprises and others for Thailand’s economic restructuring and improvement of the nation’s competitiveness, and Bt8.34 billion will be repaid to the treasury reserves.

Airlines’ hub plan

Thai Airways International and Thai Smile Airways plan to penetrate Asean, China and India jointly, according to THAI director and Thai Smile chairman Kanit Sangsubhan.

This is following Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak’s policy to promote Thailand as an aviation hub in Asean.

The plan is scheduled to be finalised by April.

“Somkid assigned THAI to lay out a five-to-10-year strategy for income. We have to plan new routes. Meanwhile, we’d like to discuss this with TAT first,” Kanit said, referring to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Merit-making

About Bt2.66 billion is expected to be spent for merit-making during the upcoming three-day Makha Bucha weekend, 64.73 per cent of the total, according to a survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting.

The remaining 39.14 per cent will be spent on travel.

Thanawat Polvichai, the centre’s director, said the estimated amount was up 39.14 per cent from 2015, when Makha Bucha Day was only a one-day national holiday.

The survey polled 1,225 people across the country from February 9-16 on their attitudes, behaviour and spending during three-day holiday including Makha Bucha Day, a Buddhist holiday.