By Thai Newsroom Reporters
NO MORE THAN A SUM OF 43 billion baht will be withdrawn from the government’s Central Fund for the current fiscal year to partly finance the digital wallet project, confirmed Prime Minister’s Office Minister Jakapong Sangmanee today (July 12).
Jakapong contended that not as much as 100 billion baht to finance the Pheu Thai-initiated digital wallet project will come from the Central Fund as earlier alleged and that the 43 billion baht sum only accounts for 40% of the total Central Fund which amounts to nearly 100 billion baht for the current fiscal year.
The planned use of the Central Fund for the populist handout campaign in addition to any emergency and necessity-based measures had been consulted with the Council of State which already gave its consent regarding the legality of the Pheu Thai-led government’s flagship project, Jakapong said.
The populist handout campaign will be implemented at the cost of 450 billion baht accounting for a 10% cut from an original sum of 500 billion baht on grounds that not as many as 50 million Thais nationwide will likely use the 10,000-baht digital wallet and that 80 to 90% of those people will do, according to Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat.
The Central Fund being at disposal of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin will be readily on tap to partly finance the digital wallet project now that the Pheu Thai-led government has finally pivoted their policy to not borrow a sum of 172.3 billion baht as otherwise earlier planned from the Bank for Agriculture & Agricultural Cooperatives.
The 450 billion baht total funding for the digital wallet project will include 165 billion baht of government budget, part of which will come from the Central Fund, for the current fiscal year and 285 billion baht from the next fiscal year.
The balance of the Central Fund will undoubtedly be available for use with emergency and necessity-based measures such as natural disaster relief efforts, according to the portfolioless minister.
The Pheu Thai-attached prime minister who is scheduled for July 24 to unveil details of the digital wallet project to the public has sarcastically downplayed the Move Forward’s expressed caution over the country’s financial and treasury disciplines which could probably be unduly compromised and enormous economic losses occur in consequences of the Pheu Thai populist campaign.
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Top and Front Page: Representative images of digital wallet project. Photos: Thai Rath
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