Government policy/digital wallet scheme

Chatrudee Theparat

Govt agreed to allocate fiscal budget to finance digital wallet

The government gave a green light to allocate the 2024 and 2025 fiscal budget and the tools of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) to finance digital wallet scheme.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin

The Digital Wallet Policy Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, agreed the government to drive the plan to give out 500 billion baht to about 50 million Thais, aged 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 exceeded more than 500,000 baht.

“The introduction is planned in the fourth quarter of this year while the government will use all the budget from the fiscal budget," Mr Srettha said.

He said the government will allow shops to register in the third quarter while the money should be transferred to eligible recipients’ account in the last quarter.

“The scheme is expected to boost the gross domestic product ranging from 1.2 to 1.8%.”

He said the Thai economy needs huge stimulus measures, adding 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 Thai economy to grow by 2.7% this year which is lower than the previous projection of various academic institutes.

“The press conference today is very good to show the public on the progress of the cash handout scheme,” he said.

Permanent Secretary to Finance Ministry Lavaron Sangsnit

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 BAAC's mechanism 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

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the government will later to provide annual budget to return the budget to BAAC. However, he did not give any specific year for the repayment.

He said the government still maintains a plan to allocate budget to strengthen the country's competitiveness while the government has already allocated some budget in the fiscal budget 2024 to use in strengthening Thai competitiveness.

He said the government also will allocate a budget to drive Thai competitiveness over the next four years.

The government earlier last year announced to allocate 100 billion baht to strengthen Thai competitiveness, particularly among high technology industry.