Govt urged to prioritise military spending cut in fiscal budget 2020

[webfact]

Govt urged to prioritise military spending cut in fiscal budget 2020

By Wichit Chaitrong
The Nation

 

 

Academics are calling for a cut in military spending as the new government prepares to set the expenditure budget for fiscal 2020, while urging the administration to spend more on economic reform, education and public health.

 

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha will hold talks with top officials of four key economic institutions on the budget bill as the economy weakens.

Prayut, who is also chairman of the Council of Economic Ministers, will meet tomorrow (August 1) with representatives from Finance Ministry, Budget Bureau, National Economic and Social Development Council and the Bank of Thailand.

 

Prayut chaired the first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after the new coalition government was sworn in. His priority is to push through the budget bill which is expected to be delayed by about four months from the normal starting date in October. The new government is expected to set the expenditure target at Bt3.2-3.3 trillion, running a deficit of about Bt450 billion.

 

The expenditure on military hardware is expected to be closely scrutinised by the opposition and the public. Over the past five years under military rule, critics had blamed the junta-backed government for the rises in military budget under the Defence Ministry, such as the purchase of Chinese-made submarines with tax-payers' money. 

 

Somchai Sujjapongse, former permanent secretary for finance, said that military spending should be cut and more funding should be allocated in support of the low and middle income groups and education". Cyber-war is here, no need for tanks and other military hardware,” he added. 

 

Army chief bristles over proposals to cut budget

 

The new government should help lift people out of poverty and provide them with more opportunities in life. “ It is not just about giving money to people but to offer them a better education and wider more job opportunities,” he suggested.

 

The government should also reduce the number of welfare card holders which currently stands at 14.5 million, he said. 

 

Government can gradually increase teachers' salaries as to make this professional attractive, he said. Higher wages for teachers would also help get them out of debts, strengthening their dedication to the profession, he said.

 

Government should adhere to fiscal discipline and refrain from over-spending on populist policies which have proven to be a waste of public fund in the long run.

 

 

Nada Chansom, an economist at the School of Development Economics, National Institute of Development Administration NIDA, shared a similar view with Somchai, saying that the budget on national security should be reduced in order to increase spending on education, public health and economic restructuring. The global economic slowdown, strengthening of the baht and the slide in Thai exports will pose serious challenges for the new government, she said.

 

Government should focus on spending that would lead to industrial restructuring which in turn would draw in more private investment.

 

“While public spending in infrastructure will drive the economy in the short term, we need more private investment to sustain long-term growth". 

Meanwhile, the Bank of Thailand reported today that overall economic activity in the second quarter of 2019 expanded moderately from the same period last year.

 

Merchandise exports continued to contract, consistent with the decline in manufacturing production, while the tourism sector expanded at a slower rate, mainly due to a decline in the number of Chinese tourists. 

 

However, overall domestic demand continued to expand, albeit at a softer pace. Private consumption softened from almost all spending categories, except non-durable goods. Private investment contracted in both investment in machinery and equipment and investment in construction. 

 

Meanwhile, public spending declined in current expenditures, while capital expenditures continued to expand. On the stability front, headline inflation accelerated mainly from the increase in fresh food prices, especially vegetables, affected by high temperature. 

 

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate slightly decreased from the previous quarter. The current account continued to post a smaller surplus, attributed to a lower surplus in trade balance, and the deficit in services, income, and transfers balance, as a result of the seasonal remittance of profits and dividends by foreign businesses. 

 

The capital and financial accounts registered a deficit from the assets side, according to the central bank.

 

Drop in domestic consumption, foreign demand weakening Thai economy

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374007

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-02

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[colinneil]

Military spending cuts aint gonna happen, as little p needs to to keep the army boss happy because he is scared of him doing the same as his daddy did( stage a coup).

[thhMan]

This Government is a result/born of the Military

Never mind the kids, the education, economy, better infrastructure etc...

[PatOngo]

"Back off, peasants, this is OUR trough!"

[Thaiwrath]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

“ It is not just about giving money to people but to offer them a better education and wider more job opportunities,”

Can't see this fella spending too much money on educating the people.

If they were educated, he would be voted out of his position(s) as soon as it is possible. 

Edited August 2, 2019 by Thaiwrath

[leeneeds]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Cyber-war is here, no need for tanks and other military hardware,” he added. 

As France has advocated lasers in space, arming satellites , what the Americans,  Russians and Chinese already have in place or on the drawing board for future military spending, is not a guess any more. 

This successive government will waste the opportunity they have now to change direction and lead with real and current knowledge on future war or protectionism of its borders.

 

[worgeordie]

Which comes first,Infrastructure,schools,hospitals, and the poor, or weapons of war,

in any society the former would be the choice,but the boys need their toys,and

commissions,buying things either not fit for purpose,or are crap,and end up crashing,

standing idle,or just rust away because they are not maintained. 

regards worgeordie

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

However, overall domestic demand continued to expand, albeit at a softer pace.

This positive statistic seems like an outlier compared to the many negative economic statistics cited in this article and many previous articles.

It may be that it's more artificial than real.

• The government's extensive price controls for consumer products (including now medicines), greater number of personal tax breaks, increases in welfare distributions, delay of the new Land & Building Property Tax increase (now for two years), delay in raising VAT (since 2012?), government subsidies and low interest loans for agricultural crops and government price controls for government-owned public utilities and fuel sales will distort open market consumer prices.
• And that doesn't begin to address potential for quid pro quo collusion (accepting lower profit margins for future contract awards and/or political influence?) between an unaccountable government and certain "influential" large conglomerate corporations to "volunteer" to not increase or even discount consumer retail prices even when such price increases are reasonable due to pass-through of higher manufacturing/import costs.

Furthermore, the alleged expansion of consumer demand is further contravened by unabated continued rise in household debt, Thailand's highest income inequality in the world and the lowest Consumer Confidence Index in almost two years since October 2017.

[JRG23]

If only people knew the bigger picture (and I do). Thailand's defence budget is one of the lowest - in terms of government allocation and in terms of proportion of GDP - in the Asia-Pacific. Thailand's defence budget is also waaay behind the global average of 2.2% of GDP.

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Army chief bristles over proposals to cut budget (see link)

• “But we have to be clear that the Army is just a state apparatus to protect sovereignty. The Army is not the state itself." - Anusorn Unno, dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology

That's a common misunderstanding or ignorance of the independent authority of the military in practice.

With the Thai military's historical unabated authority to unilaterally violate constitutions with "legal" coups, unilaterally rewriting new constitutions, laws and regulations and to suppress Thai People's constitutional rights and liberties without Thai electorate representation belies military protection of Thai People's sovereignty of the State.

The Army is not a servant of a People's sovereignty. Rather it's the reverse.

[faraday]

One can only speculate what words were used...

 

"Prayut chaired the first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after the new coalition government was sworn in."

 

 

[Pedrogaz]

Agree 100%. The world has gone mad for war toys.

[RichardColeman]

Think the Junta 33% appointed politicians may block that idea