By Thai Newsroom Reporters
NEARLY SIX MILLION ISAAN villagers have constituted the largest number of “fragile” people entitled to the Pheu Thai-led government’s 10,000-baht cash handout each.
According to Fiscal Policy Office chief Pornchai Thiravet, a total of 14.55 million “fragile” people in all regions of the country have been entitled to the 10,000-baht cash giveaway via their state welfare cards in lieu of digital wallets as earlier planned by the Pheu Thai-led government.
Those included 5.8 million northeastern villagers, followed by 3.3 northern villagers and 2.2 million southern villagers.
About one million Bangkokians and those in the provinces surrounding the capital have received the 10,000-hand baht cash handout, followed by some 750,000 western villagers, 730,000 eastern villagers and 620,000 central villagers.
The “fragile” category of recipients included 12.4 million impoverished people and 2.15 disabled people nationwide.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how soon all other Thai nationals aged 16 years and over might benefit from the Pheu Thai campaign-promised, yet delayed populist handout project via digital wallets whilst speculation has been rife to the extent that the amount of money might finally be cut from 10,000 baht to 5,000 baht for each of the “non-fragile” people.
Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat has earlier admitted that the digital wallet campaign for the “non-fragile” people will not be handed out within the fourth quarter of this year, beginning this month, and probably not within the first quarter of next year, either.
The populist giveaway campaign is wholly funded by the government’s budgets for the previous and current fiscal years.
An estimated 45 million Thais aged 16 years and over nationwide were calculated to benefit from the handout project, launched during last year’s Pheu Thai electoral campaign, thus incurring a total of 450 billion baht in government budget.
CAPTION:
Representative images of the 10,000-baht cash handout scheme. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Sanook.com
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