Proposed ceiling of Bt2.6 trillion for 2015 budget

[webfact]

Proposed ceiling of Bt2.6 trillion for 2015 budget
WICHIT CHAITRONG
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE BUDGET BUREAU will tomorrow propose a ceiling of Bt2.6 trillion for the fiscal 2015 budget to the National Council for Peace and Order.

"This is believed to help boost economic growth [by 6 per cent]," director Somsak Chotrattanasiri said yesterday.

About half of the budget has been completed. That would produce a deficit of Bt200 billion, which was an improvement over the Bt250 billion deficit in the current budget.

Somsak said the implementation of the fiscal 2015 budget should be announced by October 1 as scheduled, moving up from early next year as previously targeted.

The expenditures for investment would include infrastructure projects such as double-track railways and flood-water protection, but not a high-speed train.

The bureau focuses on fiscal principles and has set a goal of balancing the budget by 2017.

For the fiscal 2014 budget, the office targeted Bt2.525 trillion in expenses and Bt2.275 trillion in revenues, marking a deficit of Bt250 billion.

The deficit would be financed by loans, including the Bt90 billion overdue payment to farmers under the rice-pledging scheme. Of that, Bt40 billion was expected to be paid to the farmers in a few days and the remaining Bt50 billion later on.


-- The Nation 2014-05-26

[Somtamnication]

Money won't come from tourism, so wonder from where?

[iancnx]

High Speed Train scrapped. Despite this the budget is still in deficit. Goes to show the Yingluck calculator was malfunctioning when they were doing their sums!

[Thai at Heart]

They scrape 50bn out, but high speed rail is gone?

What increased?

[Mango Bob]

I wonder how much money is going to the military

[dinooz]

I think you will find the fancy train set was in addition to the normal budget.wasnt it an off budget loan to avoid scrutiny ?

[casualbiker]

They scrape 50bn out, but high speed rail is gone?

What increased?

This is just the annual budget .. NOT an infrastructure loan.. it's what people were saying all along.. that that Thailand couldn't really afford the loan.. the annual budget has risen 800 billion baht in the last 5 years. But income has only risen about 3-400 billion ..

Sent from my XT1032 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Edited May 25, 2014 by casualbiker

[Stradavarius37]

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Money won't come from tourism, so wonder from where? alt=whistling.gif>

Yes, where does government money come from....I wonder.......back to the barstool with you!

[issanaus]

The fact that the Budget is being organised will help the economy by reducing the uncertainty that was a product of the political situation.

[thesetat2013]

High Speed Train scrapped. Despite this the budget is still in deficit. Goes to show the Yingluck calculator was malfunctioning when they were doing their sums!

Imagine! This amount to finance the whole country and the same amount to finance a train? Makes one think something waa terribly wrong before

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[BSJ]

There was a movie back in the 90's called 'Money Train'. I am thinking the proposed HST would have been called the Money Train as well, but for entirely different reasons.

[boomerangutang]

"That would produce a deficit of Bt200 billion, which was an improvement over the Bt250 billion deficit in the current budget."

That's like surgeons saying; 'We cut the arm off at the elbow, but not the whole arm, so that's an improvement.'

In the movie 'Dave' there's Kevin Kline's character playing the US president's double, who becomes the actual president when the real president is clandestinely too sick to rule.

There's a part where 'Dave' has an accountant friend come secretly to the White House. The accountant looks at the ledger and exclaims 'Holy Sh*t, if a household did their finances like this, they'd be broke in a month!'

That's what it's like in the US, and on a smaller scale, that's what Thailand suffers (Thailand copies the US on many things, including defamation suits, budget over-runs, and drug laws). Will Thailand continue to pay Bt.950,000 each for little black boxes which do nothing? ....or Bt.510,000 each for clocks? Answer: Yes, and worse.

Simultaneously, Thailand shoots itself in the foot re; incoming revenue, by hamstringing its golden goose; tourism. TAT should be disbanded, as they do no good. Half of all bureaucrats should be fired for being unneeded paper-pushers. EGAT should ice its plans for a nuclear Thailand. The military should sell their addled aircraft carrier for scrap, ....the list goes on and on.

[GoodThaiGirl]

I wonder how much money is going to the military

email them im sure they will be glad of your concern/interest as a taxpayer. ..

[cloudhopper]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Money won't come from tourism, so wonder from where? alt=whistling.gif>

Yes, where does government money come from....I wonder.......back to the barstool with you!

They're going to print borrow it of course, like all sovereign states. Get ready for an increase in the current rate of price inflation.

[chainarong]

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High Speed Train scrapped. Despite this the budget is still in deficit. Goes to show the Yingluck calculator was malfunctioning when they were doing their sums!

Nothing wrong with the calculators, it was the people using them, creative accounting I do believe is the saying. .

[cacruden]

The train project (which was supported by the Democrats before PT; which was a little grandiose for Thai needs) was not at a point where it was budgeted for. The rice pledging though is gone, and if it was as much as the critics say (and yes, I did not like it either) - the budget should have shrunk considerably. That money though should be put into basic infrastructure (better national rails which are used both for passenger and produce), more public transit for Bangkok (Bangkok is just going to keep getting denser so there is no solving the traffic kaos).

[cacruden]

High speed rail makes sense only between very dense population centres..... there is only one dense population centre in all of Thailand...... therefore the project never made sense....

[Eric Loh]

So what difference between these projects expenditures and the previous government. Guess the difference is only politics.

[robblok]

The train project (which was supported by the Democrats before PT; which was a little grandiose for Thai needs) was not at a point where it was budgeted for. The rice pledging though is gone, and if it was as much as the critics say (and yes, I did not like it either) - the budget should have shrunk considerably. That money though should be put into basic infrastructure (better national rails which are used both for passenger and produce), more public transit for Bangkok (Bangkok is just going to keep getting denser so there is no solving the traffic kaos).

No the rice program was budgetted at 0 baht in the budget or at a profit. That was the whole problem, they did not put a cost budget there. Just a loan because it would pay for itself. That is why nobody could find out about the losses. Then they would have slashed their budget and could not pay for other vote buying.. eh popular policies.

[Gunna]

So what difference between these projects expenditures and the previous government. Guess the difference is only politics.

Hopefully now less of the money will disappear.

[bigbamboo]

There was a movie back in the 90's called 'Money Train'. I am thinking the proposed HST would have been called the Money Train as well, but for entirely different reasons.

Makes a change from the Gravy Train.... the one that's just been de-railed.

[BlackCedar]

I wonder how much money is going to the military

All of it .... The Military are running the budget ...... and running the country ... and I know that sticks in your throat... choke..!

[BlackCedar]

Double post..

Edited May 26, 2014 by BlackCedar

[Eric Loh]

So what difference between these projects expenditures and the previous government. Guess the difference is only politics.

Hopefully now less of the money will disappear.

That's wishful hoping. Only the pockets are different. Just glad Suthep no where near the honey pot.

[rubl]

The 2013/2014 2.52 trillion National Budget had a planned deficit of 250 billion. I would assume that with slowdown of economy and probably slowdown in disbursement that deficit will not differ too much in the end. No data available till now of course

What I'm wondering about is some items from the Transport Ministry which seemed had moved from National Budget to 2 trillion loan. Like double tracking, some road maintenence and building. Will those items be moved back to the NB where they belong? How about repayments to be made to BAAC?

[Robby nz]

The 2013/2014 2.52 trillion National Budget had a planned deficit of 250 billion. I would assume that with slowdown of economy and probably slowdown in disbursement that deficit will not differ too much in the end. No data available till now of course

What I'm wondering about is some items from the Transport Ministry which seemed had moved from National Budget to 2 trillion loan. Like double tracking, some road maintenence and building. Will those items be moved back to the NB where they belong? How about repayments to be made to BAAC?

Theres your answer in the OP rubi

The expenditures for investment would include infrastructure projects such as double-track railways and flood-water protection, but not a high-speed train.

Consider that the precious budget did NOT include these projects and the deficit was still 50 billion higher than forecast for the coming year.

[doctorproc156]

High Speed Train scrapped. Despite this the budget is still in deficit. Goes to show the Yingluck calculator was malfunctioning when they were doing their sums!

Imagine! This amount to finance the whole country and the same amount to finance a train? Makes one think something waa terribly wrong before

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

It wasn't just a train, it was literally an investment to bring Thailands infrastructure to a level that is better than a lot of developed countries., dualtracking, high speed trains, rural roads. The infrastructure will last at least 150 years if not longer and that budget is for 1 year. that being said, I do think the high speed trains are currently unnecessary for Thailand.

[robblok]

High Speed Train scrapped. Despite this the budget is still in deficit. Goes to show the Yingluck calculator was malfunctioning when they were doing their sums!

Imagine! This amount to finance the whole country and the same amount to finance a train? Makes one think something waa terribly wrong before

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

It wasn't just a train, it was literally an investment to bring Thailands infrastructure to a level that is better than a lot of developed countries., dualtracking, high speed trains, rural roads. The infrastructure will last at least 150 years if not longer and that budget is for 1 year. that being said, I do think the high speed trains are currently unnecessary for Thailand.

The problem was they wanted a high speed train and that was not needed. The other stuff is needed but PTP wanted to do it out of budget with no checks and balances. Can you imagine how high their budget would be if it was included in the normal budget.

I as anti government was for the infrastructure.. but only if transparent.

Can you imagine the pain of all the PTP politicians now they are cut of from the free flowing corruption money.

[iancnx]

I think the infrastructure projects are an absolutely fundamental element of modernising this country, but only when it can be afforded. The PTP proposed debt would have finished this country forever, forever at the mercy of others..... I wonder who their saviour would have been....hahaha. Well no more 2.2 trillion nonsense or whatever it was. I suspect China will step up and be a lot more generous with their investment in this country at some point in the future. With some ASEAN coffers also, a Beijing link could be realised. The whole project can now be allowed to evolve with a transparent financial footing where all stakeholders get to pay a share, and reap the benefit accordingly.

[Robby nz]

I see the OP mentioned flood protection work would be included in the budget and was wondering if this includes the contentious dams and diversion channel ?

There was supposed to be 350 billion borrowed off budget from various (mostly Govt) Thai banks for this work, anyone know if this money or part of it was actually taken from the banks ?

I suppose if it was then it will be just another money trail the generals men will have to follow to see where it went.

There is also the aspect that if it or part thereof was borrowed then the banks which loaned it will be expecting it back with interest at some point.