Saturday 30 March 2013

Thai 2 Trillion Baht Infrastructure bill approved

After two full days of heated debate, the House of Representatives last night voted to approve the first reading of the government's 2-trillion-baht infrastructure loan bill.



Mr Kittiratt also said the calculation of the interest payments for the 2 trillion baht in borrowing, estimated at 3 trillion baht over the next 50 years, was based on a conservative approach with a rate of about 5%, higher than the rate now.


Democrat MP for Phitsanulok, Juti Krairiksh, also questioned why the government had increased the cost estimates for high-speed railways from about 300 million baht per kilometre to 600 million baht.
He said high-speed railways in Spain cost only about 300 million baht per kilometre to build, even though daily wages in Europe were more than 10 times those of Thailand.
Read the full article at the Bangkok Post.

Comments:
Laurence - The high speed rail will never happen given the amount of taxis buses private taxi etc that service Pattaya Bangkok and the airport their buddies certainly won't let it happen just take a look at the recent Phuket airport bus service that tried to get off the ground and the local pollies asked the taxi boys for permission

Tibo - The mafia of public construction and government loans is much stronger than any mob of whatever they sell. Plus if it cost so much, they will put the fare at a so high price that taxi may still be competitive

The Nation - The train project "will only benefit the rich."

Ally - Thailands GDP is $365 Bilion US (11.3 trillion Baht) and they want to borrow 2 trillion Baht, so they basically want to borrow a 20% of that......very risky.......

Dan - The loans are being provided by lenders within Thailand, so....someone somewhere *cough*, has 2.2 trillion laying around which will take 50 years to pay back, including interest to the value of around 5.5 trillion. If the government defaults for any reason the lender then owns Thailand!

Dan - Say for example that a government had some policy where it paid substantially more for a product than its market value, which it then sold at a substantial loss, for a a long period, it pushes all kind of alarm buttons this lending bill, but unfortunately too many people will get rich on both sides to stop it. They want 2.2 Bn but can't even tell the senate what exactly it will be spent on!...and because it will be a loan it bypasses checks and balances normal state funded projects undergo...licence...print...money....TAXI !!!



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