About 5 million people exercised their right to the half-half co-payment scheme of the government on its first day of implementation, causing over 1 billion baht to change hands.
Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said the fourth phase of the co-payment scheme started on Feb 1 and saw about 5 million people using the 50% government subsidy on basic consumer products, the sales of which amounted to about 1 billion baht on the first day of implementation alone.
In the fourth phase of the co-payment scheme, the government hands 1,200 baht to each recipient via the Pao Tang app. On Feb 1, 16.93 million previous recipients confirmed their participation in the renewed scheme and 5.1 million of them exercised the right resulting in the payment of 1.15 billion baht.
“Of the sum, the people spent 585 million baht and the government paid 570 million baht,” the government spokesman said. The government paid 50% of recipients’ purchases and the subsidy was capped at 150 baht a day.
There were 27.98 million participants in the third phase of the scheme. Other people can start to register their participation from Feb 10 and successful registrants can exercise their right from Feb 17 to April 30. The fourth phase of the co-payment scheme welcomes 29 million recipients altogether.
Besides, the government increased monthly handouts to government welfare card holders by 200 baht per holder per month for three months and card holders can spend the extra handouts from Feb 1 to April 30, Mr Thanakorn said. (TNA)
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