The cabinet on Tuesday approved 12.75 billion baht in cash handouts to help low-income earners, the latest bid by the government to boost consumption in the struggling economy.
The cash will be distributed to 5.4 million non-farmers earning up to 100,000 baht a year.
The measure, proposed by the Finance Ministry, aims to help low-income earners under the state welfare registration project after the cabinet approved on Sept 27 aid packages for needy farmers.
Eligible people are those on the state welfare register who are not farmers. They can check their eligibility at the Revenue Department website.
They must also be at least 18 years old as of Aug 15 this year and are currently unemployed or earned less than 100,000 baht a year in 2015.
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The unemployed or those earned less than 30,000 baht a year will get a one-time handout of 3,000 baht each. This group comprises 3.1 million people and the budget spent to help them is 9.3 billion baht.
Earners of 30,001 to 100,000 baht a year will get a one-time aid of 1,500 baht each. This group consists of 2.3 million people for a budget of 3.45 billion baht.
In total, a budget of 12.75 billion baht will be spent to help 5.4 million people.
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Government Savings Bank and Krungthai Bank will inform eligible people and transfer the money to their registered bank accounts within seven days after the notification.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha also told reporters the government was planning additional measures to boost year-end spending.