Thailand's $13 billion digital handout scheme to include cash payments, says PM Shinawatra

Bangkok: Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy.

Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added.

The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.

It was not immediately clear how much of the budget for the programme would be distributed in cash. A deputy finance minister could not immediately be reached for comment.

The comments from Paetongtarn, 38, come two weeks after she was selected to become Thailand's youngest prime minister by parliament after her predecessor Srettha Thavisin, the policy's biggest advocate, was removed from office by a court.

A new government is expected to be formed by mid-September, with a cabinet list already finalised but yet to be made public.

The stimulus programme, the ruling Pheu Thai Party's main election platform, aims to jumpstart an economy that has been lagging behind regional peers.

Southeast Asia's second-largest economy grew 2.3 per cent in the April-June quarter, but analysts said fiscal policy uncertainty clouded the outlook.

The central bank has forecast economic growth of 2.6 per cent for this year, after last year's 1.9 per cent expansion.

Economists and two former central bank governors have criticised the handout programme for being fiscally irresponsible and the government has delayed the scheme due to funding issues. It is due to be rolled out in the final quarter.

Government officials have promised the plan will adhere to fiscal discipline.

Paetongtran, 38, is the daughter of the influential former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is still seen as a major force in politics.

In a speech to top executives last month, Thaksin backed the digital wallet scheme and previously said allocating part of the handout in cash would be beneficial to vulnerable groups.

($1 = 34.2600 baht)