Pheu Thai Slams Mid-Year Budget

[webfact]

Pheu Thai slams mid-year budget

By WICHIT CHAITRONG

The Nation

Govt accused of pandering to coalition and spending to boost electoral chances

Opposition MPs yesterday accused the Democrat-led government of returning political favours ahead of the next polls via the proposed Bt100 billion mid-year budget.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday presented the Lower House a supplementary budget bill, seeking more funds to support people affected by natural disasters, social welfare and to restore treasury reserves.

The government is required by budgeting law to restore treasury reserves of Bt84.14 billion, said Abhisit. He said that the government had previously drawn from the treasury reserves mainly to repay public debts in advance. More treasury reserves should help easier expenditure management for the next government, he argued.

The government will also need to spend Bt15.86 billion to recover farm lands and public infrastructure damaged by severe flooding last year, and pensions for the elderly and disabled.

The government had previously set expenditure at Bt2.07 trillion for the current fiscal year against estimated revenue of Bt1.65 trillion.

Abhisit said that the latest revenue estimates were Bt120 billion more than the previous projection, enabling the government to propose a mid-year budget of Bt100 billion.

He said that the economy last year grew 7.9 per cent and is expected to expand 3.5 to 4.5 per cent this year. He conceded that the economy this year faced many risks, including higher oil prices, uncertainty of the global economic recovery and inflationary pressure.

He said that Bt9.9 billion would be used to repair roads, water systems, schools and temples damaged by natural disasters. About Bt5.9 billion would be allocated for Bt500- monthly cash handouts to about 830,000 elderly and 160,000 disabled persons, the premier said.

Pheu Thai MP Surapong Tovichakchaikul blamed the government for poor management of the budget. He said the government had failed to estimate revenue correctly, as the government had previously projected revenue of Bt1.65 trillion for the current fiscal, but later revised up the estimate to Bt1.77 trillion.

He charged the Democrat-led government of using the supplementary budget as a ploy to prepare for election. He pointed out that a large share of the spending is being allocated to please coalition parties: the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry under supervision of Chart Thai Pattana get Bt1.69 billion, the Interior and Transport ministries under Bhum Jai Thai are allocated Bt8.7 and Bt2.9 billion respectively.

Surapong claimed businessmen had complained that they had to pay about 20 per cent of cost to corrupt politicians while bidding for projects.

Abhisit responded that budget was being allocated to areas where damage had occurred. For example, to repair roads budget must be allocated to the Transport Ministry, said Abhisit.

Another Pheu Thai MP, Wittaya Buranasiri, said the government had no plan to prevent future flooding. He said several roads have blocked water ways, so the government needs to spend on tunnel construction instead of only repairing roads.

Outspoken Pheu Thai MP Chalerm Yoobamrung said Abhisit could not succeed in creating a welfare state unless he succeeded in expanding the tax base. He did not believe the government would meet its revenue target. He warned that more spending would fuel inflation. He claimed corruption was more widespread in the Abhisit administration than in the Thaksin government.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said he is confident the government would be able to collect tax revenues Bt120 billion above the estimate.

In the first four months of fiscal 2011, tax collection was already Bt65 billion higher than the target, he said.

According to Korn, the government needs the mid-year budget because there are only Bt15 billion left in the central budget for fiscal 2011.

-- The Nation 2011-02-17

[animatic]

Of course this is EXACTLY what PTP would be doing right now if they had access to the money.

But they would likely be pocketing much more and doing less good, through lack of focus. with what actually got out to the people.

They looked at all the crap happening and estimated lower income, and pleasant surprise the country is doing better than expected, and so there is higher revenue, and so a PTP rep thinks this is BAD. What a twit.

And in the same article Chalerm says

they can't possibly meet their revenue targets...

But they have already surpassed their revenue targets, in spite of PTP's reddened friends doing so much to prevent the country from having any revenue....

A classic line here....

Another Pheu Thai MP, Wittaya Buranasiri, said the government had no plan to prevent future flooding. He said several roads have blocked water ways, so the government needs to spend on tunnel construction instead of only repairing roads.

Right, let's build tunnels under the rivers, rather than raise the bridges so boats can pass under them.... The costs of tunneling under waterways is far, far higher than building taller bridges.... Another clueless comment thrown out willy nilly milly vanilli.

Add to the fact, that commercial building in wetlands by greedy puyais is more the problem that individual roads.

Edited February 17, 2011 by animatic

[Robby nz]

PT would be far more believiable and effective if they had some policies themselves, other than bring back Thaksin.

If they are losing their popular support as fast as they are losing their MP's votes, as per the constitution vote, then they are dead come election time.

[hammered]

The hilarious thing was when Chalerm tossed Abhisit a soft ball to hit out of the ground that made everything Mingkwan had said sound silly. Great entertainment, but not sure how Thaksin will feel with PTP and particularly Mingkwans awfully boring and short on substance performance or Chalerm's soft ball which would indicate either a lack of team play or that Chalerm has totally lost any edge he ever had, which in reality was never that much anyway.

Edited to add: be interesting to see if the dems ever raise the issue of local authorities who allegedly spent all their budget on sending reds to Bangkok and so had no money left when floods hit. Mnay stories of that did the rounds up north and a lot of stuff they normally did ground to a halt straight after the demos. The rumour goes that the PTP big boys would reimburse the money after the uprirising....but....

Edited February 17, 2011 by hammered

[Ricardo]

Is it too much to ask, that the Red-Shirts' main political-party might instead welcome those parts of the budget, which clearly benefit the poor of whom they claim to be the sole-representatives, I'm thinking of things like disability-pensions & old-age-pensions ? It may not be much, every month, but it is at least a start.

Or is this evil policy unable to be mentioned, in their comments, because it clearly demonstrates that the PTP are not the only people who help the poor ?

I agree that the tax-base needs to be widened, to enable higher-spending on a nascent welfare-system, perhaps major land-owners amongst their supporters/leaders might publicly welcome this ? Or will they continue to rig the laws as previously, in order to dodge paying their rightful taxes, DL's family (amongst others) should make clear their future-intentions ?

Lastly I would welcome Khun Korn's fiscal-prudence, already seen in higher-than-expected tax-receipts, which suggests that the financial-management of the public-finances is on the right track, under the current government. :jap:

[Bagwan]

Excerpts from the OP, my comment in rouge.

Surapong claimed businessmen had complained that they had to pay about 20 per cent of cost to corrupt politicians while bidding for projects.

You'd have thought that they had got used to that by now. It is not as if every thing was hunky dory under previous governments.

Another Pheu Thai MP, Wittaya Buranasiri, said the government had no plan to prevent future flooding. He said several roads have blocked water ways, so the government needs to spend on tunnel construction instead of only repairing roads.

I don't think that any previous government had a plan to prevent future flooding either. Of course under Samak there wasn't any flooding, just excess rain water.

I assume that Wittaya means constructing tunnels or clearing existing ones under the roads and not tunneling under rivers. Why not tunnel and build new roads?

Outspoken Pheu Thai MP Chalerm Yoobamrung said Abhisit could not succeed in creating a welfare state unless he succeeded in expanding the tax base. He claimed corruption was more widespread in the Abhisit administration than in the Thaksin government.

Well, he would know.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said he is confident the government would be able to collect tax revenues Bt120 billion above the estimate.

Time to change the crystal ball then.