[sustran] article on new Thai petrol fund, bangkok post 9-Feb-03

Karl Fjellstrom karl at dnet.net.id
Sun Feb 9 11:24:48 JST 2003


Thaksin defends subsidy fund 
 
Economy can cope with war, he says 
 
Yuwadee Tunyasiri 
 
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says the special petrol price
intervention fund is not a misuse of taxpayers' money and will not place
a fiscal burden on his government.
 
Mr Thaksin yesterday played down concerns about abuse of taxpayers'
money.
 
The prime minister earlier said the government would use a standby
credit of six to eight billion baht from the Government Savings Bank to
support the petrol price freeze. 
 
He told critics not to worry about any fiscal damage, saying the
government would be able to repay the loan plus interest and continue
running the fund until oil prices returned to normal.
 
The government has decided to cap pump prices of premium petrol at 16.99
baht a litre, regular gasoline at 15.99 baht and diesel at 14.79 baht as
world oil prices rise ahead of an anticipated US war against Iraq.
 
The petrol fund, expected to start tomorrow, would subsidise petrol
traders once prices rose above the pegged level and would take money
back from traders once the prices fell below that level.
 
Mr Thaksin said the public had nothing to fear if war did erupt as the
country was now strong economically.
 
Exports were up and foreign exchange was flowing in. All the economic
figures looked good.
 
Mr Thaksin said foreign reserves now stood at US$39.8 billion. ``That is
close to the biggest amount we have ever had.
 
``There is nothing to worry over the country's financial health,'' he
said.
 
The government projected economic growth in 2004 at 5%, inflation at 2%
and revenue at 928 billion baht.
 
It would still run a budget deficit in 2004, when annual expenditure
would come to about 1.02 trillion baht, he said.
 
The country should balance its budget by fiscal 2007, he said.
 
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