The Comptroller-General's Department will start paying monthly living allowances to the elderly that have registered homes in Bangkok's 50 districts through an electronic system this month, says its chief.
Some 739,000 elderly who have houses registered in Bangkok and receive the monthly living allowance might not be sent their July allotment if their information is incomplete or incorrect.
Those who do not receive their allotment should inform the district office where their households are registered, said Suttirat Rattanachot, director-general of the Comptroller-General's Department.
The department is responsible for developing and supervising the working system in Bangkok, coordinating with related agencies and transferring the living allowance to recipients' savings accounts for the electronic living allowance payment, also called e-social welfare.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has the duty to verify welfare recipients' information, while the Interior Ministry's Provincial Administration Department is in charge of checking whether recipients are still alive as well as whether their household registration is in Bangkok.
The government hopes using the e-payment system will help reduce fraud and enhance customer convenience. The living allowance is paid through local administrative organisations.
All elderly Thai citizens are entitled to a progressive living allowance, with 600 baht paid to those aged 60-69, 700 baht to those aged 70-79, 800 baht to those aged 80-89, and 1,000 baht to those aged 90 and older. However, the Finance Ministry is mulling methods to raise the living allowance to 1,200-1,500 baht per person per month.
Thailand has 10 million people aged 60 and above, with 8 million of them receiving the living allowance while 2 million have forgone the subsidy.
The government earmarks around 60 billion baht a year for the allowance.
In the meantime, the State Enterprise Policy Office said state enterprises sent 131 billion baht to the government for the October-to-June period, exceeding the target by 25.2 billion or 23.9%.
The top five income contributors were the Government Lottery Office, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, PTT Plc, the Government Savings Bank and the Provincial Electricity Authority.