Government agencies adopting work-from-home measures and overlapping work hours to prevent infections have not affected fiscal 2021 budget disbursement, says the Comptroller-General's Department.
"There are no effects on budget disbursement, with government agencies still able to disburse money through the government's fiscal management information system [GFMIS] as usual," said Poomsak Aranyakasemsuk, the department's director-general.
The GFMIS is an electronic system designed to manage public finance, state budget and treasury reserves, among others, in an integrated manner.
The Comptroller-General's Department is working on accelerating disbursement in various government agencies by setting up a working committee to oversee fiscal 2021 budget disbursement, both for the central budget and budgets allocated to 76 provinces across the country, said Mr Poomsak.
Accelerating contracted projects under the fiscal 2021 budget and investment expenditures are intended to inject capital into the economy at a faster pace, he said.
Public expenditure, one of the main engines that sustained Thailand's economy last year, is anticipated to be revised down, driven mainly by the lower-than-expected fiscal year 2021 annual budget and the carryover budget as well as a reduction and postponement of state-owned enterprise investment, according to the latest edited minutes by the Bank of Thailand's Monetary Policy Committee.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2021 (starting Oct 1), 257 million baht in public spending was disbursed, up 5.6% year-on-year.
The overall budget of fiscal 2021 tallied at 3.3 trillion baht, 1 trillion, or 31.1%, has been disbursed.