Treasury reserves are expected to rise to 403 billion baht by the end of the fiscal year from 345 billion baht this week even as the junta speeds up budget disbursement, says the head of the Comptroller-General's Department.
"Although revenue collection is estimated by the Fiscal Policy Office to fall 100 billion short of target [for the fiscal year] and the National Council for Peace and Order is accelerating budget disbursement in a bid to achieve the target, we believe Treasury reserves are adequate for the government's spending," said department director-general Manas Jamveha.
The department will encourage efforts to boost budget disbursement to 90-91% of the 2.525 trillion baht in spending set for fiscal 2014, Mr Manas said, adding that he remained concerned about whether investment disbursement would reach its goal.
The current disbursement targets are 95% of the total budget and 82% of the investment budget.
As of June 30, 1.72 trillion baht (68.1%) of the 2.525-trillion-baht budget had been drawn down, missing the 70% target.
Of the disbursed budget, 1.51 trillion baht was regular expenditure and the remaining 209 billion was for investment.
The disbursement for investment represented 48.8% of the investment budget.
The investment budget for fiscal 2014 is 420 billion baht, most of which is for projects worth less than 100 million.
Given that budget disbursement is still lower than targeted, the Comptroller-General's Department recently estimated 90.8% of the total budget and 65% of the investment budget would be drawn down this fiscal year.
"We want to expedite disbursing budget for small projects rather than large ones, as the approval process is faster and their combined amount is far higher than for large projects," Mr Manas said.
"We have almost three months left in this fiscal year, and we've already informed state agencies that we don't want them to carry over investment budget to the next fiscal year."
Mr Manas reiterated that budget disbursement for the fiscal year would miss the targets.