The government gave a green light to allocate 2024 and 2025 fiscal budget to finance the digital wallet scheme, a schedule to launch in the four quarter this year.
The Digital Wallet Policy Committee chaired by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin agreed the government to proceeds the plan to give out 500 billion baht each to about 50 million Thais 16 years and older who earn less than 70,000 baht a month or annual income less than 840,000 baht a year, and their savings accounts have not an exceeding than 500,000 baht.
“The introduction is planned in the fourth quarter this year while the government will use all of the budget from the fiscal budget.”
Mr Srettha said the government will allow for shops to register in the third quarter while the money should be transferred to eligible recipients’ accounts in the last quarter.
“The scheme is expected to boost the gross domestic product ranging from 1.2-1.8%.”
He said the Thai economy needs huge stimulus measures, saying the economic growth might have been less than 1% in the first quarter of 2024, following the 1.7% expansion in the previous quarter.
The National Economic and Social Development Council(NESDC) projected the Thai economy to grow by 2.7% this year which is lower than previous projection of various academic institutes.
“The press conference today is good to show the public the progress of the cash hand out scheme.”
Permanent Secretary to Finance Ministry Lavaron Sangsnit said the government will manage to provide 175.50 billion baht from the 2024 fiscal budget, a 152.70 billion baht from the 2025 fiscal budget, a 172.30 billion on the requirement of the Section 28 of the State Fiscal and Financial Discipline Act to use mechanism of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) to finance the scheme to 17 million farmers.
He confirmed that the government has room to provide 175.50 billion baht of the 2024 fiscal budget.
The lower house of the Thai Parliament passed the 2024 budget worth 3.48 trillion baht on march 22, a disbursement is expected in May, delayed from a normal schedule in October last year.
Last week, the cabinet approved a plan to expand its budget deficit next year by 152.7 billion baht, saying it would be used to stimulate the economy.
Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the government still maintains a plan to allocate a budget to strengthen competitiveness while the government has already allocated some budget in the fiscal budget 2024 to use in strengthening Thai competitiveness.
He said the government will also allocate a budget to drive Thai competitiveness in the next four years.
The government earlier last year announced to allocate 100 billion baht to strengthen Thai competitiveness of Thai industry especially among the high technology industry.
