Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong listens during a __news conference in Bangkok on Friday. (Bloomberg photo)
The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Friday passed in three straight readings the 190-billion-baht supplementary budget bill for the 2017 fiscal year where more than half of the fund was earmarked to finance investment in provincial clusters.
Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong, Deputy Finance Minister Wisudhi Srisuphan and Deputy Interior Minister Sutee Markboon appeared before the NLA to defend the spending plan.
Mr Apisak said the 190-billion-baht supplementary budget was drawn up to speed up implementation of urgent policies to trigger economic activities and that the money would come from state revenues and loans.
Of the 190 billion baht, about 115 billion baht, would be allocated for local development of provincial clusters. The government was seeking to increase budgets for provincial clusters, hoping it would spur private sector investment.
The rest was broken up as follows: 15 billion baht for Village Fund development; 10 billion baht for boosting industrial competitiveness; 23 billion baht for reserve funds; and 27 billion baht to use as compensation in treasury reserves.
Mr Apisak told the NLA that the economy was expected to grow by 3-4% in 2017 thanks to an increase in public investments which would strengthen the domestic economy.
He said the mid-year expenditure plan was one of several mechanisms instrumental in helping the government achieve its goal as he urged NLA members to support the bill.
Several NLA members took turns discussing the supplementary budget bill.
Most concerns focused on transparent and efficient spending.
Some called on the government to set up a cross-sector committee to monitor the spending plan for local development of provincial clusters and make sure it would serve its purpose, and that investments reach the targets determined by the government.
NLA member Singsuek Singprai told the meeting that he was in support of the supplementary budget bill while pointing out that the spending was increasing the financial burden on the state.
Gen Singsuek called on government representatives to explain how it planned to manage the budget deficit and make sure it would not hurt fiscal stability. He also demanded to know the public debt and if the fiscal standing was worrisome.
Mr Apisak said the public debt would increase from 42% to 44% of GDP after the supplementary budget, which was still far below the fiscal stability threshold of 60%.
"That's why the government decided to draw the supplementary budget and seek loans of 160 billion baht. Here, we're not looking for an increase in GDP, which will be around 0.4%-0.5%, but we're hoping to increase competitiveness and improve the people's well-being.
"That's why the funds are being channeled to the clusters of provinces," he said.
The NLA voted 182 to pass the supplementary budget bill in its first reading with three abstentions. A full-House committee was set up to deliberate the bill section by section in the second reading and passed it without changes.
After five hours of deliberations, the lawmakers voted 163 in favour of passing the bill in the final reading with two abstentions.
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