Director-general Chaisawasdi Kittiporn-paiboon said yesterday that his department had decided to put new investment projects on hold, because they were faced with a delay in budget disbursement for fiscal 2007.

But he said some important projects had to proceed and would make use of the expected Bt20-billion carry-over budget from fiscal 2006.

"This budget amount is expected to have no problems with disbursement to contractors," he said.

Thus, Chaisawasdi suggested contractors not be too concerned about whether there would be a budget for government road construction next fiscal year.

"If we have a new election and then a new Parliament to approve the 2007 budget, then the disbursement problem will be eased," he said.

However, caretaker Transport Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal recently met with all departments under his ministry, in a bid to solve the delay in the fiscal-2006 budget disbursement for new investment projects. More than half of a total budget of Bt100 billion has not yet been disbursed.

The ministry has ordered all departments to speed up disbursement for important projects, especially ones involving roads, bridges and ports.

"The ministry hopes all of the projects will have received their budgets by September," said Chaisawasdi.

Meanwhile, caretaker Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya assured investors in Singapore yesterday that Thailand's overall infrastructure-building remained unaffected by the protracted political uncertainty, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

He said bidding for mass-transit rail extensions would be opened by the end of the year.

He admitted many infrastructure projects had been delayed by political developments, but the overall plan remained unaffected.

Thanong said Thailand was committed to several large-scale investments, such as the Bt550-billion transit systems.

He told a Merrill Lynch business forum in Singapore that Cabinet approval had been granted for 40 kilometres of rail extensions.

"We're expecting to begin bidding for system design and construction at the appropriate time, maybe by the end of the year," he explained.

However, economists suggested projects that were not in the budget for fiscal 2006 would not see bidding until mid-2007 at the earliest. The current financial year ends on September 30.

If a general election were held on October 15 as planned, a new government would be unable to pass appropriations until March 2007, six months into the next fiscal year.

They said moving ahead with the first rail-extension project by the end of the year assumed elections would take place in October and the current caretaker government was returned to power and could form a new government by December.

There were significant legal questions about whether the caretaker Cabinet had authority to initiate these projects.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation