Bangkok – The Ministry of Commerce estimates that the government welfare card scheme has brought an extra 2 billion baht into circulation over the past two months but has ordered the ejection of several participating shops due to violation of participation conditions.
Deputy Minister for Commerce, Sonthirat Sonthijirawong has responded to reports of Pracharat stores packaging goods in packs of 200-300 baht for welfare card holders and not clearly displaying prices, by saying that agents have been dispatched to remind them of the conditions of their participation in the welfare scheme and that such practices undermine the project’s intention to allow low-income earners to freely choose their purchases. He asserted that some violators of the scheme’s conditions have had their participation revoked but noted that there have only been a handful of instances.
The deputy minister indicated that he expects the amount of money added to circulation will exceed 5 billion baht as soon as another 18,000 Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines are installed.
