BANGKOK Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday approved an additional 276 billion baht (US$7.5 billion or RM35.37 billion) in borrowing for the 2024 fiscal year, to help finance a household handout scheme to help stimulate the economy, government officials said.

That would bring total new borrowing in the fiscal year to one trillion baht, deputy government spokesperson Radklao Suwankhiri told a news briefing.

The newly approved borrowing is part of a wider revised debt management plan in the fiscal year, which includes the management of existing debt of 2.04 trillion baht and debt repayments of 454 billion baht.

The extra borrowing will help finance the government's US$13.6 billion signature handout scheme, government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke told the briefing.

In May, the cabinet approved a plan to boost the 2024 fiscal budget by 122 billion baht, to help finance the stimulus policy.

The plan would bring the total budget for the 2024 year to 3.6 trillion baht and the deficit to 805 billion baht, officials have said.

The government plans to launch a 500 billion baht handout scheme, the ruling Pheu Thai Party's key platform in the 2023 election, in the fourth quarter. The scheme, which some experts have called fiscally irresponsible due to concerns over how it would be funded and over the impact on public debt, had been originally slated for February, before being delayed to May.

The government earlier said it would finance the policy from the 2024 and 2025 budgets and use capital from the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.

Thailand's public debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 64.29% at the end of May, compared with the official ceiling of 70%.

  - Reuters