By Thai Newsroom Reporters
AN ESTIMATED 15 MILLION Thai nationals will likely be granted 10,000 baht in cash each in lieu of a digital wallet with the same amount under a new Pheu Thai-led government, a partisan source said today (Aug. 21).
Officially categorised as “fragile” groups of people, the 14.98 million people nationwide will likely become recipients to a sum of 10,000 baht in cash each, given their sustained status as state welfare cardholders earlier provided by a previous government.
Given the spending cash, those people will no longer need the otherwise-sought-after digital wallet which could probably be cancelled by the new Pheu Thai-led government under Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra who had allegedly contemplated giving it up, according to the partisan source.
It was the billionaire, powerful Thaksin himself who was said to have initiated the much-heralded, yet-delayed, now-uncertain digital wallet project.
A sum of 122 billion baht in supplementary budget attached to the government’s Central Fund for the current fiscal year will partly finance the planned handout of cash to the “fragile” groups of people who would roughly account for one-third of an estimated 45 millions aged 16 years and over, earlier anticipated to join the now-uncertain populist handout project largely known as the Pheu Thai’s flagship campaign policy.
Nevertheless, some 30 million people throughout the country have so far applied via Stateway App for eligible recipients to the digital wallet project.
But nobody in government has offered to either confirm or deny speculation that the populist handout campaign will ever be implemented by the new Pheu Thai-led government at all.
High-level officials in a previous government under court-deposed prime minister Srettha Thavisin have earlier confirmed that the contentious project would begin within the fourth quarter of this year.
The digital wallet project was primarily designed for the recipient to buy a maximum of 10,000 baht in merchandise at grocery stores, convenience stores and food markets located in their home district within a six-month period.
However, the digital wallet would not be provided for purchases of luxury goods, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, marijuana and kratom leaves or services at massage and spa parlours, beauty salons, barbershops, fitness centres and car wash garages, among others. Neither would it be provided for payments of electricity and water bills, housing rent or schooling fees.
CAPTION:
Representative images of the digital wallet project. Top photo: Sanook.com, Front Page photo: Thai Rath
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