Korn To Propose Bt85 Billion Mid-Year Budget For Thailand

[webfact]

ECONOMIC PLANNING

Korn to propose mid-year budget for Bt85 billion

By THE NATION

The government is planning a mid-year budget as it wants more funds to compensate people affected by recent severe flooding, and to refill treasury reserves, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said yesterday.

The government proposes to set aside Bt85 billion to strengthen fiscal reserves. Last year, it drew on close to Bt83 billion of fiscal reserves to finance its budget deficit. The new budget exceeds this figure, and it plans to earmark the excess as an emergency budget.

The proposals will be put to the Cabinet for approval on Tuesday.

The finance minister said there was a need for a mid-year budget because the government had to pay compensation to people hit hard by flooding, and funds currently available to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva might not cover the cost of |damage.

The government also has to refill treasury reserves. Last year it withdrew Bt40 billion to pay debts ahead of schedule, he said. If government revenue now rises, the treasury reserves should be replenished to be fair to the next government.

Korn said the government had to look at its revenue prospects this year. Next week he plans to present a revised revenue projection to the Cabinet which shows expectations of government revenue surpassing previous estimates of Bt1.65 trillion. The government has already set its expenditure for the current fiscal year ending September at Bt2.07 trillion.

Meanwhile, Fiscal Policy Office director-general Naris Chaiyasoot said his office estimated that government revenue in the current fiscal year could exceed its target by Bt100 billion, since it had already risen Bt40 billion above target in |the first three months of the fiscal year.

Economic expansion of about 8 per cent last year and continued recovery this year will contribute to rising revenue, he said.

Naris said he supported the proposed mid-year budget because more money would be injected into the economy and the additional funds could be used to pay debts.

The idea of a mid-year budget arose after the Finance Ministry collected more tax last year, he said.

-- The Nation 2011-01-14

[asiawatcher]

I just hope Thailand does not print more money to meet its debts. They were in Trade Surplus for many years but Thaksin took care of that small issue as most socialist governments globally do. If Thailand can return to that it will keep the baht strong and allow some wags increases across the board which will pacify the reds.

[fenny99]

1. So what there saying is there skint . The original budget wasnt enough ..it looked good on paper ... " everyone in the world ...look look were managing our money well "...
   Then disaster floods and theres not enough in the kitty .. Also the Bhat will depreciate on this news .. It is overvalued at 47 - 1 uk pound and 30 - 1 usa dollar ...
   EXPECT THE WORST .... The money is running out .... You cant just keep printing the stuff ...... CAN YOU ....?????

:jap: crash the bhat

40billion bhat in the first 3 fisical months

The people that voted this inxxmpxxtent govenment in must be crazy .

WHOS GOT ALL THE MONEY !!!!!!

Edited January 14, 2011 by fenny99

[alant]

1. So what there saying is there skint . The original budget wasnt enough ..it looked good on paper ... " everyone in the world ...look look were managing our money well "...
   Then disaster floods and theres not enough in the kitty .. Also the Bhat will depreciate on this news .. It is overvalued at 47 - 1 uk pound and 30 - 1 usa dollar ...
   EXPECT THE WORST .... The money is running out .... You cant just keep printing the stuff ...... CAN YOU ....?????

:jap: crash the bhat

40billion bhat in the first 3 fisical months

The people that voted this inxxmpxxtent govenment in must be crazy .

WHOS GOT ALL THE MONEY !!!!!!

"The people that voted this inxxmpxxtent govenment in must be crazy ." voted

[millwall_fan]

I just hope Thailand does not print more money to meet its debts. They were in Trade Surplus for many years but Thaksin took care of that small issue as most socialist governments globally do. If Thailand can return to that it will keep the baht strong and allow some wags increases across the board which will pacify the reds.

They don't need to print more money. just collect the taxes that are owed by tthe rich. How can you justify a trade surplus when the vast majority of Thais are struggling to get by on 6,000 baht a month? there's nothing wrong with Socialism if it gives an equal share to all.

[jayboy]

there's nothing wrong with Socialism if it gives an equal share to all.

That's precisely what's wrong with it.

[jdinasia]

I just hope Thailand does not print more money to meet its debts. They were in Trade Surplus for many years but Thaksin took care of that small issue as most socialist governments globally do. If Thailand can return to that it will keep the baht strong and allow some wags increases across the board which will pacify the reds.

They don't need to print more money. just collect the taxes that are owed by tthe rich. How can you justify a trade surplus when the vast majority of Thais are struggling to get by on 6,000 baht a month? there's nothing wrong with Socialism if it gives an equal share to all.

Other than "an equal share to all" means the profits of YOUR business spread evenly ----

Countries with strong socialist programs tend only to work well when they are heavily industrialized and have small populations. Then the tax base is there for it. (BTW --- if every street vendor making more than 12.5K a month paid their taxes ........ (oh wait -- unregulated? Get regulators! Pay them with what?)

[rubl]

1. So what there saying is there skint . The original budget wasnt enough ..it looked good on paper ... " everyone in the world ...look look were managing our money well "...
   Then disaster floods and theres not enough in the kitty .. Also the Bhat will depreciate on this news .. It is overvalued at 47 - 1 uk pound and 30 - 1 usa dollar ...
   EXPECT THE WORST .... The money is running out .... You cant just keep printing the stuff ...... CAN YOU ....?????

For months all and sunder have been complaining about the level of the Thai Baht. Bad for business, etc., etc. Why doesn't the government do something.

Now the government gets accused of printing too many Bahts.

Logic thy name is TV poster ?

[fenny99]

1. So what there saying is there skint . The original budget wasnt enough ..it looked good on paper ... " everyone in the world ...look look were managing our money well "...
   Then disaster floods and theres not enough in the kitty .. Also the Bhat will depreciate on this news .. It is overvalued at 47 - 1 uk pound and 30 - 1 usa dollar ...
   EXPECT THE WORST .... The money is running out .... You cant just keep printing the stuff ...... CAN YOU ....?????

For months all and sunder have been complaining about the level of the Thai Baht. Bad for business, etc., etc. Why doesn't the government do something.

Now the government gets accused of printing too many Bahts.

Logic thy name is TV poster ?

The reason the government hasnt interveaned is beacust they have lots of bhat in there bank accounts , with the bhat getting stronger there actually getting richer , they can now afford to buy things from outside of Thailand .

Just imagine there is a Major Money Man ( MMM ).. He has 10billion bhat in his acoount at 70 bhat to the dollar he really holds $1428757100 dollars

Now Imagine he has 10 billion bhat at 45 to the dolllar he actually has a holding of $2127659.00

SO THATS

$142857100

$212765900

$69908800 PROFIT By letting the Bhat apreciate

The 10billion bhat is just a small number with many high flyers holding more bhat than that ...

DO YOU SEE HOW THE RICH ARE GETTING RICHER THE POOR AINT GOING NOWHER ON THERE 200BHAT A DAY .

The bhat will weaken but you can bet your balls the high flyer will have changed bhat into another currency before it does and then may even change it back to bhat when it weakens

ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

[SICHONSTEVE]

1. So what there saying is there skint . The original budget wasnt enough ..it looked good on paper ... " everyone in the world ...look look were managing our money well "...
   Then disaster floods and theres not enough in the kitty .. Also the Bhat will depreciate on this news .. It is overvalued at 47 - 1 uk pound and 30 - 1 usa dollar ...
   EXPECT THE WORST .... The money is running out .... You cant just keep printing the stuff ...... CAN YOU ....?????

:jap: crash the bhat

40billion bhat in the first 3 fisical months

The people that voted this inxxmpxxtent govenment in must be crazy .

WHOS GOT ALL THE MONEY !!!!!!

I couldn't agree with you LESS on just about everything written in your misinformed comments in this posting!!!!!! You clearly do not understand Thai politics, or politics and the workings of government in general, come to that. For a start, can you imagine how difficult it is to set a balanced budget FOR A COUNTRY when there are so many unknowns and unforseen global events that can throw it off course - at a whim. Talking of unforseen events - natural disasters aren't the fault of the Thai government, are they!!! They are just showing responsibility in their caring actions of compensating people for their unfortunate losses (including that of the so many lives) from the recent floodings.

The Baht will not depreciate on account of the emergency budget, in fact for reasons too complex to go into here the Thai government expects that the effects of this emergency budget could result in the opposite happening ie: the Baht strengthening. The description of 'emergency budget' is somewhat misleading as they are essentially budgets outside of those that are programmed/scheduled and are so designed to alleviate problems and redress imbalances to the finances that crop up from time to time - usually as a consequence of external occurences such as those that have affected a majority of the developed countries (particulary Europe and the USA) in respect of matters pertaining to the global crisis. Thailand has weathered the storm remarkably well 9you might care to note) and exports have held up despite the Bahts strength as well as the tremendous turmoil in the financial markets over the past 2 years or so. If you had bothered to look at what this emergency money is ear-marked for you would have seen that a majority of it is destined to replenish the government coffers (strengthen the fiscal reserves in other words)!!! The reasons given are that they withdrew 40 billion last year from treasury reserves to pay back (EARLY) money borrowed in order to reduce Thailands interest payments (primarily those on the bond markets) . Furthermore, they are being highly responsible in their actions so as to be fair to the next government - "their words not mine" no matter whether they are re-elected or if the opposition UDD get back in (heavens forbid, they don't)!!!. Don't you think these are the actions of a sensible AND responsible government and not that of a government that doesn't know or understand what its doing????? As to them being skint - their expectations of government revenue far outweigh that of the 1.65 billion Baht of earlier predictions according to the latest projections of this. Economic expansion of 8 % last year and continued expansion this year means that they expect to EXCEED their original target by 100 billion Baht, as in the first 3 months of the fiscal year it has already risen by 40 billion above expectations (not as you imply, it has been spent or wasted). This windfall will alow them to inject money into the economy for the benefit of ALL as well as enabling the current government to pay off those costly debts. In fact, the idea of this mid-year budget rose on account of the fact that they collected much more tax than they were expecting, last year.

The money is not running out!!!!???? and the necessity for quantitive easing (printing money) hasn't even crossed their minds as there is clearly no need to enter into this potentionally damaging scenario.

What else? Oh yeh, this government wasn't voted in by the people for a start. It was formed after the previous one was ousted - effectively by the "yellow shirts" actions in barricading Bangkoks 2 airports and government house. They held a kind of "card vote" whereby a number of MP's changed their allegiance away from the Peua Thai party or even from within it and sided with Abhisit to form a broadly based coalition based government.

Finally, the governments got all the money and they are spending it for the benefit of the country and the Thai people with the recently formulated and worthy social benefit programme designed to help the POOR and disadvantaged in society - whilst paying back those debts!!!! Not bad for an incompetent government!!! Don't you think?????