The Comptroller-General's Department plans to directly provide living allowances for over 10 million elderly and disabled citizens via an e-payment system.
Making direct payments through the e-payment system will help reduce budget leakage, said Poomsak Aranyakasemsuk, director-general of the Department.
At present, only recipients living in Bangkok and in Sing Buri province receive living allowances electronically under a pilot scheme.
Local administrative organisations are developing an IT system to gather data concerning the recipients from a database of 7,774 organisations nationwide for the Comptroller-General's Department's electronic social welfare system, verifying their information. The goal is to improve the efficiency of the living allowance payments.
Mr Poomsak said direct payments can streamline work processes and alleviate officers' caseload, while recipients can receive monthly financial assistance quickly and conveniently.
All elderly Thais are entitled to a progressive living allowance, with 600 baht paid monthly to those aged 60-69, 700 baht to those 70-79, 800 baht to those 80-89 and 1,000 baht to those 90 and up.
The Finance Ministry is pushing efforts to ask affluent elderly Thais to relinquish their monthly old-age living allowance to concentrate funds towards 4.6 million senior citizens who are also welfare smartcard holders.
The disabled are allocated a monthly living allowance of 800 baht each.
In related news, Mr Poomsak said state agencies doled out 501 billion baht worth of investment budget in fiscal 2019, 90.9% of the 551-billion-baht budget. They drew down 2.93 trillion baht, accounting for 97.7% of the annual budget expenditure of 3 trillion baht last fiscal year, with 2.43 trillion baht from the regular budget.
Mr Poomsak said 254 billion baht, representing 99.6% of the carry-over budget, was taken out in fiscal 2019, which ended on Sept 30.
The department ensured that state agencies disbursed budgets through monitoring and on-site visits to fix obstacles in proceeding with procurement, he said.
For the fiscal 2020 budget, the cabinet recently approved annual budget expenditure of 3.2 trillion baht, of which 655 billion baht is for investment.