The disbursement of state enterprise investment budgets over the first four months of the fiscal calendar from October 2024 to January this year has fared better than targeted, according to the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo).
Some 52 state enterprises are supervised by the Finance Ministry, in accordance with the State Enterprise Governance and Administration Development Act of 2019. Among them, 43 state enterprises have investment budgets.
According to Tibordee Wattanakul, director-general of Sepo, in the first four months the investment budget disbursement amounted to 45.1 billion baht, exceeding the target of 37.5 billion by roughly 18%.
The total investment budget for state enterprises under both the calendar year and fiscal year this year is 253 billion baht.
Sepo set a disbursement target of 95% of the total investment budget this year, matching the rate achieved last year, amounting to 264 billion baht.
Last year was the first time the disbursement rate reached as high as 95%, said Mr Tibordee.
For the four-month period, state enterprises with an investment budget disbursement rate of 95% include the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA), the Provincial Electricity Authority, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and PTT Plc.
Major state enterprise investment projects that exceeded their planned disbursement rates include the MRTA's Purple Line Extension (Tao Poon–Rat Burana), the SRT's Den Chai–Chiang Rai–Chiang Khong railway construction project, and the MWA's ninth Master Plan Waterworks Improvement Project, with disbursement rates of 121%, 269% and 101%, respectively.
He said the disbursement of investment budgets by both state enterprises and the government plays a crucial role in stimulating economic growth, in line with this year's targets.
The Finance Ministry stated earlier if the government's investment budget disbursement for the current fiscal year reaches 80% of the total allocated investment budget of 932 billion baht, it will contribute to economic growth reaching 3.5%.
