State investment slower than targeted

State investment slower than targeted

Construction continues at the government's special economic zone in Tak province. The Comptroller-General's Department said on Friday that disbursement of the government investment budget was slow in the first nine months of fiscal 2018. (File photo)
Construction continues at the government's special economic zone in Tak province. The Comptroller-General's Department said on Friday that disbursement of the government investment budget was slow in the first nine months of fiscal 2018. (File photo)

Government organisations disbursed 47% of the 577 billion-bath investment budget in the first nine months of fiscal 2018, well short of the target, the Comptroller-General's Department announced on Friday.

Director-general Suttirat Rattanachot said about 270 billion baht, or 46.84%, of the government's investment budget was disbursed from last October to the end of June.

Disbursement had been targetted to reach 65.11% of the budget within the first nine months. Actual spending fell short by 18.27%, she said.

Spending on fixed costs amounted to 1.84 trillion baht, accounting for 82.25% of the 2.24 trillion baht allocated for the fiscal year. This exceeded the target by 5.25%.

The overall disbursement of the 2018 budget amounted to 2.11 trillion baht, or 72.87% of the total 2.9 trillion-baht budget for fiscal 2018. Disbursement was 1.42% below target, Ms Suttirat said.

She attributed the slow rate of disbursement to both internal and external factors of government organisations, but did not elaborate.

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