Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak's appointment at the economic helm late last August was followed by rapid-fire launches of stimulus measures to revive the slowing economy.
Measures worth more than 400 billion baht were announced but disbursement of the funds was slow, snagged by red tape.
The 36.3-billion-baht scheme to distribute 5 million baht to each of 7,255 tambons nationwide has progressed at a snail's pace even though it was among the first batch of measures launched in early September.
A meagre 2.49 billion baht or 6.8% of the budget had been taken out as of Jan 29, according to the Comptroller General's Department. The slow budget disbursement has caused the government to push back the project's deadline to March from December last year.
The Interior Ministry is the core agency responsible for budget allocation for each tambon to implement any project related to building or repairs and development projects in line with the sufficiency economy.
The Comptroller General's Department data also showed that 27.5 billion baht of the budget of 40 billion for quick disbursement for small projects worth less than 1 million baht nationwide had been drawn down as of Jan 29.
The government wants the budget to be fully disbursed by this month.
Yet another stimulus measure, to direct 59 billion baht in cash handouts to grass-roots communities through the Village Funds, has also made slow progress.
According to Fiscal Policy Office data, 43.3 billion baht had been taken out by 48,200 villages as of Jan 25. The scheme's deadline has also been extended to March from the end of last year.
The scheme offers funding of 1 million baht for 59,000 villages ranked grade A and B, featuring interest-free soft loans for the first two years and only 1% plus financing costs for the subsequent three to seven years.
Despite the slow disbursement of stimulus funds, the cabinet last month approved an additional 35 billion baht to inject 500,000 baht into each of the 70,000 villages nationwide to boost the rural economy hurt by soft agricultural prices and drought.
The wave of stimulus packages was rolled out as short-term measures to maintain growth momentum and help vulnerable groups get through hardship while exports are sagging and public and private investment remain tepid and, in any case, takes longer to bear fruit.
Cash injections through banks have appeared to be the most efficient pump-priming tool.
The 100 billion baht in soft loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was fully taken out in a few months after the government threw the lifeline last September.
The Government Savings Bank extended the soft loans to commercial and state-run banks at 0.1% interest. The banks then relent the money to SME operators at a 4% rate.
Demand for the SME loans was so strong that the government approved an additional 50 billion baht: some 40 billion of the new funding was drawn down in less than a month.
Similarly, high demand was seen for GH Bank's cheap-rate mortgages and Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation's 100-billion-baht credit guarantees to SMEs under its portfolio guarantee scheme 5.
GH Bank is offering another 10 billion baht in mortgages after the first batch worth 10 billion was taken out in less than a month. As of Jan 25, 5.5 billion baht had been drawn down.
Under the scheme -- designed to help buyers of homes valued 3 million baht or less to gain better access to mortgages by raising the caps for borrowers' debt-servicing ratio to 40-50% of salary base from around 33% in normal cases -- the state-owned housing bank is allowed to offer loans of up to 3 million baht to those with monthly incomes of 30,000 baht.
Normally, only those earning 54,000 baht a month are eligible for such housing loans.
Slow disbursement of the stimulus budget is causing concern in the government. Budget Bureau director-general Somsak Chotrattanasiri has warned that it will transfer stimulus funds that fail to be disbursed within deadlines without good reason to the central budget.
He says the slow disbursement also reflects the working efficiency of some state agencies.
A huge number of projects and a requirement for local administration organisations to record information about contracts and budget disbursement are clogging the disbursement of the scheme to pay each tambon 5 million baht, says Mr Somsak.
The Budget Bureau has sent its staff to help local administration organisations in recording information and speed up budget disbursement, he says.
According to a source, the Finance Ministry is studying a new stimulus package to ward off downside risks to growth.
Aat Pisanwanich, director of the Center for International Trade Studies at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, says it will be essential for the government to offer new stimulus measures if several economic indicators remain weak in the first quarter.
China's economic slowdown has been a double whammy for the Thai economy this year because the world's second-largest economy is a major trade partner, accounting for 11% of Thai exports, he says. Every fall of one percentage point in China's GDP growth will shave three percentage points off Thailand's exports.
The centre forecasts Thai exports this year will expand 2% assuming China's GDP growth is 6.3%, adding that shipments will contract again if China's economic growth comes in at below 5.8%.