The Comptroller-General's Department wants to see the entire annual budget expenditure for fiscal 2019 doled out, citing the amended Budgetary Procedure Act and the department's close monitoring of state agencies' budget disbursement.
If the target is achieved, it will be the first time for disbursement to reach 100%, said Yanee Sangsrichun, an adviser for fiscal and financial system development.
The act stipulates that the budget of any investment project for which contracts are not signed by the end of the fiscal year will be cancelled automatically, prompting state agencies to accelerate investment, Mrs Yanee said.
Investment project cancellation will affect state agencies' performance rating because it is used as an indicator in measuring working efficiency.
The amended law has prompted state agencies to plan budget disbursement in a more efficient way to prevent the budget being lowered the following year, Mrs Yanee said.
The best budget disbursement rate has been about 80%.
The current law went into effect from late fiscal 2018 and prevents state agencies from carrying over their investment budget to the following fiscal year if project contracts have not been signed.
The cabinet earlier approved a fiscal 2019 budget expenditure of 3 trillion baht, of which 2.2 trillion or 72.2% is regular budget, 666 billion is investment budget, and the rest is for debt repayment.
Mrs Yanee said the Comptroller-General's Department set up 149 teams tasked with monitoring state agencies' budget disbursement.
Of the total, 64 teams follow state agencies that have investment budgets and the remaining 85 monitor state agencies in provincial areas such as provincial offices of the Comptroller-General's Department.
State budget disbursement can help drive the country's economic growth to achieve the government's target, Mrs Yanee said.
She voiced confidence that budget disbursement would not stall during the general election period, as all agencies must draw down budget as planned.
State agencies doled out 46.7% of the fiscal 2019 investment budget and 45.2% of the fiscal year's total budget during the four months to January.