Thailand: Cash handout to farmers delayed

• A planned cash handout to assist farmers has been delayed after a meeting to discuss the issue was cancelled because of a discrepancy in registration information.
• Originally set for 14 Apr 20, the meeting was to be chaired by Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana.
• The meeting’s cancellation causes a delay in financial assistance that was to seek cabinet approval on 15 Apr 20, the source said. A new meeting has not been scheduled yet.
• Information about the number of registered farm households still differs in the range of 8 million to 12 million among state agencies, so the Finance Ministry cannot set how many farmers are eligible for the cash giveaway and the budget to be allocated for the financial aid.
• According to the agenda, either a one-time or monthly payment of THB5,000 per farm household for three months was to be discussed at the meeting.
• Mr Uttama recently said the proposed cash handout to eligible farmers was one among several relief measures to be funded by the government’s THB1tr emergency loan scheme.
• Such assistance would be directly transferred to farmers through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives because up to 7 million farmers are the state-backed farm bank’s customers.
• The planned cash handout was a key tenet of the third and most recent stimulus package. The government aims to offer financial aid to all categories of agriculture, including rice farmers, fruit and flower growers, fisheries and livestock farmers.

External Link : https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1899835/meeting-called-off-over-discrepancy