The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) yesterday approved a fund-raising plan of the Expressway Authority of Thailand (Exat) worth 30 billion baht.
Using the first tranche of the Thailand Future Fund (TFF) as a vehicle, the funds will finance the expressway linking Rama III Road and Dao Khanong.
As the expressway is a greenfield project, Exat will pick its brownfield projects to bundle in TFF's underlying assets, Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo) said.
Exat recently said it would decide on two brownfield projects to be added to the country's largest infrastructure fund among three planned projects: Chalong Rat Expressway (Ram Intra-At Narong), Burapha Withi Expressway (Bang Na-Chon Buri) and Kanchanaphisek Expressway (Bang Phli-Suk Sawat).
The cabinet in December approved the launch of the TFF, an infrastructure fund for raising up to 100 billion baht from the public for the construction of big-ticket infrastructure projects and reduce public debt.
The fund will also afford the government more room to invest in necessary infrastructure projects with lower investment returns.
With the addition of the Rama III-Dao Khanong expressway, the total investment value of 45 state enterprises under Sepo's supervision will rise to 400 billion baht from 371 billion.
The TFF is expected to go public by the end of this quarter.
Mr Ekniti said Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak wants state enterprises to accelerate their investment budget disbursement to achieve the target of 95% for this fiscal year and front load their investment spending earmarked over the next two years in the January-to-June period of this year to boost the country's economic growth.
Krisada Chinavicharana, director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office, said the government managed to garner 550 billion baht in revenue for the October-December quarter, surpassing the target by 27 billion or 5.2%.
The higher-than-targeted revenue collection can be attributed to income contribution from state enterprises, which exceeded targets by 11 billion baht.
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