More than 3 million state welfare smart cards have been distributed to new beneficiaries - mainly the disabled, elderly and bed-ridden patients - who have registered for the state-sponsored subsidy and welfare scheme for low income earners.
Since May, 3.04 million of the 3.14 million qualified applicants who signed up for the state aid in the additional round opened last year had received their welfare smart cards. The remainder must get theirs by Dec 20 to prevent their right from being waived, Yanee Sangsrichun, adviser of the Comptroller General's Department's Fiscal and Financial System Development, said on Tuesday.
This brings the total number of state welfare smart-card holders to 14.5 million, she said.
Card holders now each receive 200-300 baht a month to buy consumer products at Thong Fah Pracharath shops; a 500-baht-a-month fare subsidy for public buses, inter-provincial buses and electric trains; and a 45-baht discount for cooking gas purchases every three months.