Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin reiterated today that the “digital wallet” scheme will go ahead as planned and that about 50 million eligible people will receive the Bt10,000 state benefit in the fourth quarter of this year.
Before chairing a meeting of the scheme’s policy committee this morning, the prime minister inquired about the whereabouts of the governor of Bank of Thailand, Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, who had not shown up for the meeting.
Ronadol Numnonda, the deputy governor of the central bank, representing it in place of the governor, reportedly told the prime minister that Sethaput was engaged in a meeting of the monetary policy committee.
The prime minister responded, saying “no problem, we can talk later.”
At that meeting, the monetary policy committee is widely expected to cut the policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.25% to stimulate the weak economy, as sought by the government and the private sector.
At the first meeting this year in February, the committee resolved by a majority to maintain the policy rate at 2.5%, which is the highest in ten years.
Finance Permanent Secretary Krisada Chinavicharana said that the 500 billion baht needed to the digital wallet scheme will come from the national budgets for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years.
He explained that the 500 billion baht is split into:
- 152.7 billion baht from the 2025 budget, the size of which has been increased to 3.752 trillion baht, as approved by the cabinet on Tuesday.
- 172.3 billion baht from the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, which will take care about 17 million farmers eligible to receive the benefit.
- 175 billion baht from the 2024 budget plus the Central Fund.
