About 2.76 million Thai citizens, or 30% of the 9.31 million who have failed the screening process to receive subsidies under the state welfare card scheme, have filed appeals for reconsideration within just two days, according to the Finance Ministry.
The number of appeals is expected to increase steadily, creating a major headache for the government as it has tries to scale down the scheme and cap the number of welfare card recipients, due to budgetary constraints, at 10 million out of a total of about 18.2 million applicants.
Non-formal education students are also barred from state welfare subsidies, even though they are poor, have no income or have incomes of less than 100,000 baht per annum.
Most of the 9.31 million applicants were disqualified because they failed to meet the following requirements:
- must not earn more than 100,000 baht in annual revenue
- must not have debts, credit cards or combined bank deposits of more than 100,000 baht
- must not own a private car or more than two motorcycles with maximum capacities of 300cc
According to the Finance Ministry, 1.45 million applicants were found to own a car and more than 660,000 were found to have incurred debts exceeding 100,000 baht.
To resolve the problem regarding car ownership, the Ministry of Transported as agreed to amend the regulation to exclude cars which are more than 20 years old, motorcycles which are more than 15 years old, taxis, tricycles, motorcycles with engine capacities of up to 300cc and farm trucks.
Political observers say that the problem confronted by the government is similar to when the previous government introduced a new rule to exclude parents from applying for state welfare cards if their children used their names for income tax deductions. The rule was subsequently removed due to public backlash.
The observers have also pointed out that, even though those who failed the screening process have the right to appeal, they have to struggle through bureaucratic red tape. For instance, if they were disqualified because they own a car, they must present official documents to prove to officials at the Land Transport Department that their cars are more than 20 years old or are unusable.
The current confusion appears to stem from the lack of understanding among bureaucrats of the true meaning of poverty, observers say.
State welfare card holders are entitled to a monthly subsidy of 300 baht, plus 100 baht for utilities. Budget to fund the state welfare card scheme has been cut from about 50 billion baht to about 42 billion baht this year.
Card holders do not qualify for the 4,000 baht provided over four months under the ‘Thai Chuay Thai Plus’ scheme.
