The State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo) of the Finance Ministry said disbursements by the 45 state enterprises surged 25.2 per cent year on year to Bt16.68 billion last month, driven by PTT, the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), the Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) and Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), Sepo director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas said at press conference yesterday.
The fiscal year runs from October 2016 to September 2017.
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT), Thai Airways International (THAI), and TOT have seen slowdowns of their investment-budget disbursements, he said.
He said he had asked state enterprises to front-load their investments and put more emphasis on fourth-quarter disbursement, which it was hoped would bolster economic growth.
The state enterprises’ investments expanded 10.5 per cent year on year in the third quarter, driving economic expansion while private spending has not fully recovered.
The previous quarter’s growth figure was 8.2 per cent.
Charnwit Nakburi, deputy director-general at Sepo, said the investment-budget disbursement of the state enterprises totalled Bt178.39 billion, or 77.9 per cent of the accumulative investment budget plan, from October 2015 to September 2016.
Their disbursement totalled Bt90.66 billion or 69.5 per cent of the whole year’s investment budget plan in that period, he said.
Those that disbursed budgets as planned included MRTA, PWA and the National Housing Authority, while those with lower budget disbursement than targeted were SRT, Airports of Thailand and the Expressway Authority of Thailand.
For the first nine months of 2016, state enterprises registered disbursed Bt87.73 billion or 88.9 per cent of the accumulative investment-budget plan.
Those that met their budget-disbursement goals were Egat, the Provincial Electricity Authority and CAT Telecom, and those with lower-than-targeted budget disbursement were PTT, THAI and TOT.