Parliament approves 1st reading of Thai government's Bt2t loan bill

BANGKOK, March 30 (TNA) - The House of Representatives approved late Friday the first reading of the Thai government's two trillion baht infrastructure loan bill after a 28-hour debate. The bill comfortably sailed through the first reading with the majority vote of 284:152, with 21 abstentions, and a 36-member House scrutiny committee has been set up to scrutinise the bill within 30 days before it goes for the second reading. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong explained during the debate that the Thai government issued the bill, instead of using its fiscal budget expenditure, to finance its new mega-infrastructure development projects over the next seven years to smoothen the implementation of the projects without any budget constraint. Kittirat pointed out that using the state budget to fund the new mega-projects might affect budgets for other government plans, namely those for national education, but using borrowing money to finance the mega-projects, mostly in the transport sector, will enable the Thai government to maintain its fiscal discipline. Kittirat ensured that the government will spend the money transparently, and that the borrowing will be made in line with what specify in the bill and public debt will not exceed 50 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to the deputy premier, repayment of the loans, mostly from domestic sources, can be settled before a 50-year timeframe set by the incumbent government, depending on policies of future ministers. The House's scrutiny committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on April 2. (TNA)