Govt aims to disburse 70% of FY2024 investment budget in 4 months

He said the ministry hopes that the investments of key ministries including Interior, Public Health, and Transport, would help boost Thailand’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.24%, contributing to the government’s goal of achieving at least 3% GDP growth this year.

Pichai was speaking after a meeting with the committee responsible for following up on the government's investment budget disbursement on Friday. Executives of over 20 ministries and related agencies, including the Comptroller-General's Department and State Enterprise Policy Office, joined the session.

The meeting acknowledged that the disbursement of investment budget for some ministries had not met the target set by the Comptroller-General's Department, which had stipulated that at least 21% of the investment budget must be disbursed in the third quarter of FY2024.

Pichai has ordered ministries lagging behind to submit a report to the meeting next week, detailing reasons for delays in disbursement and their plans to disburse the budget in the rest of the fiscal year.

“So far, about 40% of the investment budget has been disbursed. We believe that the 70% target could be achieved even without accelerating measures,” said Pichai. “However, if we could disburse more than the target it would benefit the economy from increased capital.”

Comptroller-General Patricia Mongkhonvanit reported to the meeting that 38.6% of the 850-billion-baht investment budget in FY2024 had been disbursed, exceeding the department’s target of 21%. 

She said that the department would accelerate budget disbursement for about 10 ministries that had not met their targets, with priority on projects that needed more than 10 billion baht investment.

Tibordee Wattanakul, director of State Enterprise Policy Office, reported that the total investment budget of state enterprises in FY2024 amounted to 257.45 billion baht. As of May 31, 131.51 billion baht had been disbursed, 51% of the total budget, and was higher than last year’s disbursement of 38% in the same period.