New budget bill to be submitted to House in October
The Fiscal Year 2020 budget bill will be submitted to the House in October and approval sought for estimated spending of Bt3.3 trillion by the Prayut II government, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said Wednesday.
Wissanu said the Parliament will be in recess in October but the government will seek an extraordinary session for the passage of the budget bill.
The bill should be passed by January next year and be retroactive to October 1, when the new fiscal year starts, Wissanu said.
He said the projected spending of Bt3.3 trillion could be trimmed or increased during the vetting of the bill by a special House committee after the bill is approved in a first reading.
The deputy prime minister said the budget bill states on the last page how the government would acquire the money for the projected spending.
The bill states that the government would get money for social development affairs from taxes, and for the development of basic infrastructure partly from joint projects with the private sector and partly from taxes.
He said the budget for long-term projects would come from new tools being developed by the government while some money could be found through cuts in unnecessary spending.