The cabinet on Tuesday approved a fiscal 2022 budget of 3.10 trillion baht, with a deficit of 700 billion baht, which is 91 billion or 15% higher than fiscal 2021.
Sommai Lakananuruk, deputy secretary-general of the Budget Bureau, said the fiscal 2022 budget, starting from Oct 1 this year, would be 186 billion baht or 5.66% lower than the 3.28 trillion baht approved in the fiscal 2021 blueprint.
The regular budget is set at 2.36 trillion baht in fiscal 2022, down by 177 billion from the current fiscal year.
Revenue collection is estimated at 2.4 trillion baht, down by 10.4% from the current fiscal year, which is 2.77 trillion.
The fiscal 2022 budget is based on an economic growth forecast of 3.5% and an inflation rate of 0.7-1.7%.
The investment budget is maintained at 20.1% of the total budget, or 624 billion baht, down from 649 billion in fiscal 2021.
According to Mr Sommai, based on the country's strategy, the government has allocated 387 billion baht to national security in fiscal 2022, with 338 billion baht set aside to strengthen the country's competitiveness; 548 billion baht to human resource development; 733 billion baht to create opportunity and social balance; 119 billion baht to quality of life and environment, and 559 billion baht to government management.
The Education Ministry secured the highest budget allocation at 332 billion baht, followed by the Interior Ministry at 317 billion, the Finance Ministry at 274 billion and the Defence Ministry at 203 billion.
The government is maintaining a budget for social welfare such as for the elderly, children and the disabled at 1.5 trillion baht in fiscal 2022.
With an amount of investment budget lower than the budget deficit, Mr Sommai said the cabinet required state-owned enterprises to ramp up their investment and some infrastructure projects should receive investment in the form of the public-private partnership scheme.
State agencies with a lot of revenue should use their own revenue to promote foreign investment, he said.