State enterprises drew down 18 billion baht or 4% of this year's investment expenditure target, during the three months to December.
Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo), said state enterprises took out 83% of the target for the October-to-December quarter, set at 21.5 billion baht. Their investment budget disbursement for the period was 8.6% higher than a year earlier.
The investment budget of 45 state enterprises excluding subsidiaries was set at 506 billion baht, up substantially from 344 billion for 2017.
The government aims to disburse 95% of the budgets for state enterprises this year.
In 2017, state enterprises doled out 280 billion baht in investment, accounting for 81% of the target, he said.
The Port Authority of Thailand, Mass Rapid Transit of Authority and the National Housing Authority managed to disburse 100% of their investment budget in 2017, while the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the Provincial Electricity Authority, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, PTT Plc, CAT Telecom Plc, Thailand Tobacco Monopoly and the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand disbursed 90-99%.
Mr Ekniti said Sepo has informed the chairmen of state enterprises and representatives from the Finance Ministry who sit on state enterprise boards to ramp up investment budget disbursement, with an eye to bolstering economic growth and the country's competitive edge.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC)'s board has approved setting up a risk-based capital charge of 8% for investment in Thailand Future Fund (TFF), the government's infrastructure fund using expressways as underlying assets.
The risk of a principal loss from investment in TFF is limited as income regularly streams in from the expressways, on top of high returns from toll hikes, which are considered every five years, said OIC secretary-general Suthipol Taweechaikarn.
The fund is supported by the government and its creditworthiness should be higher than private debt instruments, he said.
The Office of the Attorney-General is vetting a draft on the revenue transfer agreement, allowing for the shift of 45% of future revenue from the Chalong Rat Expressway (Ram Intra-At Narong) and Burapha Withi Expressway (Bang Na-Chon Buri) to the TFF for 30 years.
If the draft wins approval from the attorney-general, Sepo will submit the IPO filing for TFF to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sepo estimates 45 billion baht will be raised from offering the first batch of TFF units to the public, but the exact amount of proceeds from the IPO depends on investor valuation of the expressways.
Proceeds from the first lot of TFF's IPO will be used to finance construction of the expressway linking Rama III Road-Dao Khanong and the Western Outer Ring Road, worth 30.4 billion baht, and the third stage of the long-delayed northern expressway linking the Kasetsart intersection and Nawamin Road, valued at 14.3 billion.