The 2016 budget will try to control fixed government expenses and help low-income earners make ends meet, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announces the policies the governmetn will enshrine in the 2016 national budget to officials at a seminar in the Centara Grand at CentralWorld Hotel in Bangkok on Wednesday. (Photo by Apichart Jinakul)
He announced the policies to be enshrined in the next fiscal year's budget, which will see the projected deficit rise by 56% over 2015, to a meeting of officials at a Bangkok hotel.
Gen Prayut said the 2016 fiscal budget would be designed to fairly treat low-income earners and farmers, and ensure they have adequate means of support.
He said farmers are the backbone of the country.
The prime minister admitted the government could not give subsidies to all groups of poor people. Therefore, community empowerment would be promoted so that it could create jobs for local people.
Gen Prayut said although the 2016 budget was bigger than the 2015 budget, government agencies would have to find ways to cut fixed expenses. He suggested lower oil prices and a reduction in duplicated work could partly allow this.
The expenditure budget for fiscal 2016 was set at 2.72 trillion baht, rising by 5.6% from the 2015 budget. It would run a 390-billion-baht budget deficit, he said.
Gen Prayut said deficit spending was necessary to push investment, but was capped at 2.9% of the gross domestic product. Although the deficit would rise from fiscal 2015, at 2.9% it would still ensure sustainability under international budget standards, the prime minister said.
The projected deficit in 2016 would rise by 140 billion baht, or 56%, over 2015.
Gen Prayut also said that the disbursement of the 2015 budget was too slow and instructed authorities to find ways to speed it up.