As of today, a cumulative 1.3 million people adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak that has caused the government to declare a partial lockdown, resulting in severe economic contraction, are to receive the first 5,000 baht handouts for this month.
About 1.68 million out of more than 24 million people who registered for state assistance were found to be eligible for the cash giveaways in the first batch from April 8-10. The number is, however, dissatisfyingly low.
The government decided to extend the 5,000 baht monthly giveaway from the initial three-month period to six months. It also rolled out other assistance measures in addition to the economic stimulus package like the 500 billion baht soft loan package for small and middle-sized enterprises in an ambitious assistance scheme that accounts for 1.9 trillion baht in total. The government is to issue an executive decree for the loans.
According to Finance Ministry data, initially altogether 280,000 people received the cash yesterday, the first day.
It's unclear when the next batch will get help, but the Finance Ministry said it was racing against time to verify the eligibility of those seeking help The delay is blamed on technicalities that have rendered some people who are really a hard-hit group ineligible. They are now required to re-register. Officials are seeking additional information from those who register to confirm their eligibility.
At this stage, the ministry said priority goes to the first four groups: state lottery vendors, taxi and motorcycle taxi drivers, food shop owners, and tour guides. Verifying qualifications of certain groups, like independent workers or self-employed people, can be tough as the state lacks the data. As a result, only 100,000 out of 1.7 million people seeking help have been verified, which means more than a million are trapped with uncertainties.
Yesterday, the ministry ditched 10 groups as invalid applicants, students on job training; and state pensioners. But it appears strict verification will leave too many in the cold.
For instance, it nullified online traders as illegitimate applicants, but the fact is this group of traders is likely to lose a large group of customers given the fact the country has experienced a great economic slump as a result of the partial lockdown and curfew.
This explains why the ministry gave a modest estimation of the number of those in need of help, merely nine million who are to be qualified for the assistance.
But the nine million target is too low. It's apparent the government has tried to be flexible to accommodate as many as possible, but it needs to open more. It's evident that those eligible for the package are still limited to the formal and semi-formal sector. At least, they must possess a bank account linked with Promptpay and this is not enough.
It must be admitted that a large number of people, especially those on the lower social rungs, do not have bank accounts, not to mention a link to Promptpay.
Digital money is too complicated for this group of people who are struggling to make ends meet and it's highly likely that they are missing from the state assistance radar. At the end of 2019, PromptPay registrations totalled 49.7 million. There are concerns the economic slowdown is adding to the number of homeless in the city.
It's a big challenge for the Finance Ministry to widen the help base, locating those in need of help as quickly as possible. Reach out to them, provide them with assistance, and alleviate their hardship.