Cabinet agrees in principle to expand 2024 budget bill
Bill to finance digital wallet scheme expected to be ready for House deliberations in July, enactment by August
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved in principle the Budget Bureau’s proposal to expand the 2024 fiscal budget bill, the draft of which will be sent to the Cabinet for approval on May 28.
Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the Cabinet had agreed in principle to enact an extension to the 2024 budget bill to finance the digital wallet scheme and this bill may be ready for House deliberations by July.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said the additional bill will be submitted to the Cabinet during the weekly meeting on May 28.
This bill, he said, will comply with the State Fiscal and Financial Disciplines Act as well as the Public Debt Act. He added that the budget will not push the public debt any higher than the ceiling of 70% of the GDP.
The minister added that the mid-year budget bill’s details will be later considered by the financial and fiscal policy committee chaired by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin before the finished draft is sent to the Cabinet for approval and then passed on to the House.
Pichai said figures on the mid-year budget bill have not yet been finalised, but the ceiling will likely be set at 122 billion baht.
Speaking to reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Julapun said the mid-year budget bill was devised based on the Cabinet’s resolution last month that the 500-billion-baht digital wallet scheme will be financed by the fiscal 2024 budget, the 2025 budget and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives reserve.
Julapun said the Budget Bureau had proposed the mid-year budget bill because it would have been too complicated to transfer funds from existing projects to finance the digital wallet scheme.
The minister quoted the bureau as explaining that the Comptroller General’s Department had accelerated the disbursement of the fiscal 2024 budget, and if the funds were shifted elsewhere, it would affect industry and investments.
Julapun said the financial and fiscal policy committee will hold meetings on details of the bill before the draft is sent to the Cabinet for approval. Once the bill is approved, it will be sent to the House of Representatives in July, and possibly be enacted by August, Julapun added.
