The government’s weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday left out discussions on a fresh funding source to back the digital wallet scheme, a possibility which might include drawing funds from the budget of the next fiscal year. This disclosure was made by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. The Thai PM’s comments addressed rumours that a new financing option for the Pheu Thai Party’s key programme was to be part of Tuesday’s Cabinet discussions.
PM Srettha stated that the matter would be clarified on April 10, when the digital wallet policy committee is scheduled to meet to deliberate on the sources of funding. In a previous meeting led by the premier, the digital wallet policy committee instructed the Finance Ministry and the Budget Bureau to explore potential financing sources for the initiative. This information was shared by Lawaron Saengsanit, the permanent secretary for the Finance Ministry.
Furthermore, a source from Government House revealed that the prime minister had directed both the Finance Ministry and the Budget Bureau to jointly assess the feasibility of each financing option before the policy committee’s April 10 meeting.
An insider from the Finance Ministry revealed that the policy committee has thus far agreed to source funds for the wallet scheme from budgets of both fiscal years, as opposed to procuring a loan via an act or a combination of loans and budget. However, the source of the remaining budget for the scheme remains uncertain, reported Bangkok Post.
The 62 year old Thai prime minister expressed his preference yesterday, April 2, to leave the funding matter to be resolved at the April 10 meeting before presenting it to the cabinet meeting later that week for further discussion.
“This is so that we can prevent any confusion.”
In related news, the implementation of the controversial 10,000-baht digital wallet scheme was defended yesterday by PM Srettha. This came following a statement by Move Forward Party Deputy Leader Sirikanya Tansakul, suggesting the government develop a backup plan due to the scheme’s uncertain future.
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