The Finance Ministry is preparing to ask the cabinet for additional funding for the Rao Chana (We Win) scheme following the better than expected number of registrants.
The number of registrants exceeded the target of 31 million and could tally more than 32 million, said Kulaya Tantitemit, director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO).
Some 31.05 million people registered for the We Win scheme.
Of the total, 13.7 million are identified as state welfare cardholders, 8.4 million are those participating in the co-payment subsidy scheme and We Travel Together tourism campaign, with the general populace making up the remaining 8.95 million.
Part of the reason for the better than expected number of registrants stems from how Krungthai Bank branches across the country are designated points for offline registration for those without smartphones, said Ms Kulaya.
Offline registration was initially expected at 1 million people, but it turned out that around 1.5 million had registered and could rise to 1.7-1.8 million, she said.
Approved in January, the We Win scheme aims to provide 210 billion baht in handouts for 31 million people to alleviate hardships caused by the recent outbreak.
The key criteria for those receiving the 7,000-baht handout for two months, with 1,000 baht disbursed per week, consist of a taxable income of no more than 300,000 baht per year, or a monthly income not exceeding 25,000 baht. Bank deposit accounts must not exceed 500,000 baht.
Online registration started on Jan 29 and ended on Feb 12.
The Finance Ministry is in the process of verifying the eligibility of offline registrants that registered for the We Win scheme between Feb 15-21. The verification process will be completed on March 4 and money transfers will commence on March 5.