Poorest Thais to get income support benefits

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buksida
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Poorest Thais to get income support benefits

Post by buksida »

A welfare card to be given to registered, low-income Thais in October will provide 2,750 baht each month to subsidize set living costs, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

Instead of distributing cash as was done in the first round of the junta’s welfare program, this year will see cards provided to the 13 million eligible people who signed up. Permanent Secretary Somchai Sujjapongse said the money on the cards is already allocated for five uses: 1,000 baht for train tickets, 800 baht for interprovincial bus fares, 600 baht for Bangkok bus fares, 200 baht for electricity bills and 150 baht for water bills.

The cash limit will be renewed monthly and cannot be accrued from month to month. Cardholders can add money to their card if the balance is insufficient to cover an expense.

Somchai said his ministry will propose an initial 40 billion baht budget to the interim cabinet to run the program within two weeks.

The ministry was still considering other measures, such as a negative income tax, to help those who with less than 30,000 baht income annually, Somchai added.

Source: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/busi ... ash-cards/

Thought: A great idea, but now they are going to have start taxing the rich ones to pay for it.
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404cameljockey
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Re: Poorest Thais to get income support benefits

Post by 404cameljockey »

Seems a bit harsh to allocate so much of it to long distance travel?
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Re: Poorest Thais to get income support benefits

Post by aragon »

:agree: and presumably they are all government owned/run services and utilities, so the money just moves around varies government departments, without actually leaving the overall government coffers!!
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Re: Poorest Thais to get income support benefits

Post by Spitfire »

Well, it's something in the right direction, but I have to agree with the above posters about how it's allocated. Can't help wondering that most that have signed up for this probably don't travel much on trains or buses too regular and are your average village rice farmer.

I would have thought that it would have been better to give them the card so they could shop at state owned/supplied stores for useful stuff they need daily or stretch it to petrol/diesel etc.

If they want to make inroads into gaining support in such places then that would be a much better idea. OK, giving them just cash is doomed to fail as it would end up in the wrong hands or spent on the wrong things.
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Re: RE: Re: Poorest Thais to get income support benefits

Post by hhinner »

Spitfire wrote:Well, it's something in the right direction, but I have to agree with the above posters about how it's allocated. Can't help wondering that most that have signed up for this probably don't travel much on trains or buses too regular and are your average village rice farmer.

I would have thought that it would have been better to give them the card so they could shop at state owned/supplied stores for useful stuff they need daily or stretch it to petrol/diesel etc.

If they want to make inroads into gaining support in such places then that would be a much better idea. OK, giving them just cash is doomed to fail as it would end up in the wrong hands or spent on the wrong things.
I'm pretty sure that I saw a report in either The Nation or BP that said the cards also include credit for use at government Blue Flag stores.
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