This Wednesday, over 20 million people are crossing their fingers in hopes of receiving approval for state welfare cards, which will provide them with 200-300 baht per month, plus up to 500 baht per month for public transport expenses.
About 22 million Thais applied for the cards in the latest registration round. The Ministry of Finance is working with 43 state agencies to examine the qualifications of the applicants to ensure the scheme provides assistance to targeted groups. The ministry is expected to announce the final list of qualified registrants on Mar 1.
Those who win approval this round may even enjoy more cash handouts after the election, tentatively set for May 7, as politicians often tout state welfare cards in their campaigns.
One example is Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon. Early this month Gen Prawit, leader of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and its candidate for prime minister, vowed to increase state welfare scheme benefits to 700 baht per month if his party returns to power.
Meanwhile, the camp of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, now a leading member of the United Thai Nation Party (UTN), claimed the state welfare card scheme is Gen Prayut's masterpiece.
No matter who deserves credit for the cards, it should not be a scheme that any leader should be proud of.
The scheme is designed to support low-income people at the grassroots level. That's why the card is informally called the "poor card". Having more people being helped under such a scheme is in line with news of increases in economic inequality.
The number of applicants for the new round has jumped to 22 million people despite the fact the final figure of qualified cardholders, unofficially revealed, is likely to be about 14.5 million.
Even though stricter scrutiny of registrants' qualifications is being conducted for this round, the number of recipients does not seem to have decreased.
Under the criteria, the annual income of qualified recipients must not exceed 100,000 baht and the criteria also cover ownership of certain assets. In the past, annual income was considered on an individual basis, but for the new criteria, the income of all family members is taken into account.
The card scheme has been offered by the Prayut administration to low-income people for six years as a part of an economic stimulus package. It costs more than 50 billion baht a year.
The scheme, in fact, is developed together with career training programmes to upgrade skills for low-income earners, helping them increase their income over the long term and hopefully removing them from the need to be subsidised.
Unfortunately, it seems that nothing has materialised from the training programmes.
As the country gears up for the election, more campaigns featuring populist policies, including various forms of cash handouts, will be rolled out. The expansion of the welfare card scheme will be included among them. That's not a good development.
Instead of campaigning for increased subsidies, parties should push to scrap income subsidy schemes within a set number of years if they are elected. Improving the management of the country's economy will lead to an increase in people's incomes until there is no longer a need for subsidies. But this is likely to be one dream that will never come true.
