Finance Ministry to open new welfare card registrations in March

The Ministry of Finance plans to open new registrations for the State Welfare Card early next year, around March. This follows the last registration period from September 5 to October 31 back in 2022, aiming to review the eligibility of participants every two years.

Currently, the number of registered users has decreased from the previous 14.9 million to approximately 13.5 million, partly due to deaths. The eligibility criteria are expected to remain consistent with previous rounds.

The eligibility requirements for the State Welfare Card include individual and family assessments. Applicants must be Thai nationals aged 18 and above, with annual personal incomes not exceeding 100,000 baht. For families, the average income per person should not exceed 100,000 baht per year.

Financial assets such as deposits, bonds, and debentures must not exceed 100,000 baht per person or per family annually. Moreover, applicants must not own real estate or land beyond the limits set by the Ministry of Finance, possess credit cards, or have home loans exceeding 1.5 million baht, or car loans over 1 million baht.

Monks, novices, prisoners, individuals in welfare institutions, civil servants, government employees, pensioners, and political office holders, including MPs and senators, are not eligible.

Welfare benefits remain largely unchanged, pending any new government policies. Currently, the benefits include 300 baht per person per month for consumer goods, 750 baht per person per month for public transportation, an 80 baht discount on cooking gas every three months, 100 baht per household per month for water bills, and 315 baht per household per month for electricity bills.

The initial budget for these benefits is around 4.8 billion baht per month, or approximately 50 billion baht annually, reported KhaoSod.

In related news, the Finance Ministry suggested adjusting the inflation target for next year to a range of 1.5 to 3.5%, up from the current 1 to 3%, to grant the Bank of Thailand more flexibility in lowering the policy rate.

A ministry source, who wished to remain anonymous, indicated that this change would enable the central bank to reduce the policy interest rate, encouraging inflation to remain within the new target range.