Emergency funds in the spotlight

Emergency funds in the spotlight

Amendment will free up more Treasury reserves

Mr Somsak wants to raise the emergency reserve cap. Pawat Laopaisarntaksin
Mr Somsak wants to raise the emergency reserve cap. Pawat Laopaisarntaksin

The Budget Bureau will amend the Budgeting Procedure Act to widen the finance minister's power to allocate Treasury reserves for emergency requirements to 50 billion baht from the current 100 million.

The move is in line with changing economic circumstances, director-general of the Budget Bureau Somsak Chotrattanasiri told the Bangkok Post.

Giving the mandate to the finance minister to use a higher amount of Treasury reserves for emergency purposes is part of the amended Budgeting Procedure Act, which is aimed at reforming the country's budget allocation.

The current 100-million-baht budget is deemed to be too low, so the Budget Bureau proposed increasing the amount to 10 billion baht. The Council of State, however, considered the appropriate amount should be 50 billion baht as it is the last resort that the government can turn to without issuing new laws, Mr Somsak said.

The Budgeting Procedure Act's Section 29 stipulates that the finance minister is able to disburse 100 million baht as advanced payment for an emergency such as a natural disaster, economic crisis or a failure to implement annual budget expenditure regularly. Such an advanced payment is subject to cabinet approval.

After the money is spent, the government must allocate a budget to pay back the Treasury reserves.

The amended Budgeting Procedure Act, pending Council of State review, has revised another seven issues.

The first is arranging a five-year fiscal framework that will specify budget expenditure for the 20-year national strategy, the national economic and social development plan, government policy and reform plan under the National Reform Steering Assembly and breaking down the annual budget.

The second is allowing 7,851 local administrative organisations nationwide to submit their budget plans directly to the Interior Ministry to streamline the local budget procedure.

The third is requiring state agencies to show their financial positions, off-budget expenses and revenue to be taken into account when allocating budgets since some agencies have a high off-budget expenses but still tap into the annual budget.

The fourth issue is sorting budget expenditure into five groups -- regular budget, budget for the government agenda, budget for each area, central budget and budget for debt payment.

The fifth is permitting cross-state agencies to transfer budgets under the same scheme. For example, agencies that have leftover budget for human resources can transfer the excess amount to other agencies that fall short of budget allocated for the same purpose.

The sixth is requiring the deputy director-general or the deputy permanent secretary to take over the supervision of budget spending to boost efficiency and adhere to budget expenditure plans.

The last issue is creating a performance evaluation to measure budget spending results.

Mr Somsak referred to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's remarks that the evaluation will be used as an indicator when promoting state officials.

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