Spending plan is balanced, not 'wasteful' : Finance - The Nation

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The Nation May 22, 2012 1:00 am

Kittirat

The opposition has also been attacking the government over the rising price of consumer goods.

"The government should not need to increase taxes if it is able to meet its revenue target of Bt1.98 trillion for the current fiscal year and Bt2.1 trillion for 2013 fiscal year," Kittiratt said at yesterday's budget debate in Parliament.

He was responding to opposition and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, who said the government might not be able to meet its planned revenue target of Bt2.1 trillion, leading to an increase in value-added tax.

Kittiratt, however, insisted that the budget would be reasonably balanced and assured of fiscal discipline. He also defended the government's spending plan for flood prevention, as it has to restore confidence and boost exports.

The government plans to set its annual expenditure for the 2013 fiscal year at Bt2.4 trillion with a deficit of Bt300 billion.

Democrat MP Sansern Samalapa echoed Abhisit's concerns about the government's borrowing plan, saying that the budget deficit of Bt300 billion appeared to be a small amount, yet the government's off-budget borrowing seemed to be a lot larger.

"The off-budget borrowing is estimated at Bt1.5 trillion, as the government has to implement many schemes including rice and energy subsidy as well as flood-prevention measures," Sansern said.

It is understandable that the government needs to borrow Bt400 billion to finance its flood-prevention projects, but it also plans to waste the taxpayer's funds on unnecessary rice and energy subsidies, he said.

Sansern also blamed the rising cost of living on flawed policies, particularly its daily wage hike. He argued that the government had given very little in compensation to firms affected by the wage increase, and that this was pushing up the production costs. He also blamed the rising cost of production and logistics on the government's wrong energy policy.

The hike in wages has also increased the cost of agricultural goods by 30 per cent, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung admitted the government was not able to tackle the rising price of goods yet, but said this issue would be looked into promptly.

Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Tanusak Lekuthai said the revenue had exceeded the target at the end of April.

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