Caretaker government dismisses rumours it is depleting emergency budget
Deputy government spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek on Friday dismissed rumours of the emergency budget being insufficient for the next government because of the spending by the caretaker administration.
Rachada assured there were sufficient funds to deal with emergencies, such as natural or public disasters. She added that 92.4 billion baht had been allocated as emergency budget for fiscal 2023.
As of July 16, about 50 billion baht from the emergency budget had been approved by the Cabinet for such projects as flood relief and electricity price subsidy, she said, citing data from the Ministry of Finance.
“Thailand’s monetary and financial systems are sufficiently stable for the new government to spend on any emergency expenditure,” said the spokeswoman.
She added that the caretaker government had been dealing with the state budget properly for the benefit of all groups of people in Thailand.
Rachada said there would be sufficient funds for emergency purposes until the current fiscal year ends in September.
The spokeswoman said that this emergency fund was separate from the 3.18 trillion baht in the state budget allocated to different government agencies to be spent on their projects and missions in fiscal 2023.
“In case of emergencies, such as natural disaster, any government can still spend from this central [emergency] budget,” Rachada said.
