By Thai Newsroom Reporters
MOVE FORWARD MP PITA Limjaroenrat today (July 11) cautioned that the much-heralded, long-delayed digital wallet project could probably be aggravated from a crisis to a catastrophe.
During today’s House floor interpellations, the former Move Forward leader said the Pheu Thai-initiated populist handout campaign might probably turn the sustained financial crisis into a yet-avoidable financial catastrophe if mishandled by the Pheu Thai-led government at the cost of the country’s established financial and treasury discipline.
Given the latest development in which the government has opted out of borrowing a 172.3 billion baht loan from the Bank for Agriculture & Agricultural Cooperatives as earlier planned to finance the 10,000-baht digital wallet project, Pita said, a substantial sum of funding will undoubtedly come from the so-called Central Fund at disposal of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Nevertheless, the Pheu Thai-led government has now planned to trim down the total funding for the digital wallet project from a total of 500 billion baht as earlier calculated to some 450 billion baht, accounting for a 10% cut whilst each eligible recipient will be entitled to a maximum of 10,000 baht in digital wallet as originally designed.
Of the reduced sum of 450 billion baht, 165 billion baht, including an additional 122 billion baht from the Central Fund, will be provided for the current fiscal year, plus 285 billion baht from the next fiscal year, according to Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat.
Not as many as 50 million Thais aged 16 years and over are anticipated to use the 10,000-baht digital wallet and a range of 80 to 90% of them all will eventually join in the project, thus leaving a minimum of 10% of the earlier-estimated 500 billion baht total funding untapped, Julapun said.
But Pita warned that the government’s apparent ease of doing business regardless of the country’s financial and treasury discipline could probably fuel an alarming risk of an enormous economic loss in the foreseeable future.
The Central Fund is primarily meant to cover government expenditure on the basis of emergency and necessity such as natural disaster relief efforts, drugs production and trafficking crackdowns and environmental hazards, according to the former Move Forward leader.
However, the prime minister reassured during today’s House interpellations that the Pheu Thai-initiated populist handout campaign will be implemented as planned no later than the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year and that relevant legal procedures will be strictly observed and transparency maintained.
The Pheu Thai-attached prime minister is scheduled for July 24 to announce details of the digital wallet project to the public.
CAPTION:
Move Forward MP Pita Limjaroenrat seated at Parliament meeting chamber, above, and talking to reporters, Front Page, today, July 11, 2024. Top photo: Naewna, Front Page photo: Thai Rath
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