Free Internet and other pre-election goodies roll out for Christmas

By The Nation

 

 

IN A BID to garner popularity ahead of the election scheduled for February, the government has finalised plans to give more than 11 million low-income people free Internet SIM cards and other state subsidies that will together cost taxpayers billions of baht.

 

The Finance Ministry has proposed that the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission (NBTC) offer Internet access free of charge to underprivileged people who hold state welfare cards.

 

Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said it would benefit farmers, for example, who could access market crop prices and other useful data in real time.

 

He said farmers would be able to follow price trends on low-cost smartphones so they could make more informed decisions on what and when to plant, avoiding issues like oversupply. The NBTC would work out the details, Apisak said, and low-income people other than farmers would also benefit from online access to improve their individual economic well-being.

 

They could, for example, track job opportunities or seek training to develop new skills, thus getting the chance to upgrade their employment situation.

 

Apisak said the free Internet scheme was not intended for entertainment or gaming and should be first tested for six months pending Cabinet approval.

 

State-owned TOT Plc would be responsible for providing the service to registered low-income people around the country, he said.

 

Pocket money for New Year

 

Meanwhile, Suthirat Rattanachote, chief of the Comptroller-General’s Department, said the government would also start adding money to welfare cards later this month to help them buy necessities for the year-end.

 

More than 11 million people on annual income under Bt100,000 – less than Bt8,300 per month – have registered for and received welfare cards, qualifying for state subsidies including limited amounts of electricity and tap water. 

 

Suthirat said the money would be transferred to welfare cardholders from December through September 2019. They will have to pay their electricity and water bills initially but would be reimbursed on a monthly basis. In addition, the government will transfer Bt500 to each cardholder from December 8-10 as part of the welfare plan to boost purchasing power.

 

An unspecified number of disabled citizens and people over 60 will receive the same amount in January and February.

 

Other measures include a Bt1,000 subsidy for people aged 65 and older to cover their expenses commuting to healthcare facilities, and another Bt400 for monthly rent.

 

The raft of benefits will cost billions of baht in tax money as the government gears up its state welfare campaign ahead of the general election.

 

The 11 million-plus citizens registered for welfare and listed in a government database so the Finance Ministry can transfer money directly to their PromptPay bank accounts, bypassing intermediaries.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30359723

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-12-03

 

"...The raft of benefits will cost billions of baht in tax money as the government gears up its state welfare campaign ahead of the general election..."

 

After the election, new criteria will be established to cut the "loses" to the program in the name of "good government".

 

The poor will go back to being poor and unassisted.

 

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

 

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

the government has finalised plans to give more than 11 million low-income people free Internet SIM cards and other state subsidies that will together cost taxpayers billions of baht.

The good old "vote buying" is well and truly still alive.

Well disguised, and saves paying minions to hand out cash to the voters at the voting station. 

And.....'we'll be able to identify the great unwashed much easier'.

 

20 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

The good old "vote buying" is well and truly still alive.

Well disguised, and saves paying minions to hand out cash to the voters at the voting station. 

Not very well disguised, and using other people's money.

vomit inducing, as  for  checking  prices....pah  play  games and  look  at  titties way  more  likely

Can any one say Obama phone...

The Obama phone lady...

 

 

In western countries we call that that social security payments for retirees, jobless or disabled even payments for new parents.  With Thailands incoming money from tourism, expats and foriegn companies/ factories its a shame this couldnt be a more permanent thing and take ownership of the plight of ones own people.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

finalised plans to give more than 11 million low-income people free Internet SIM cards and other state subsidies that will together cost taxpayers billions of baht.

giving away other people's money, our money, for their own gain

If you want to bribe people then use your own money, not everyone else's.

Sent from my Redmi Note 5 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

I see this as a good thing. I don't see it as a populist policy as we have seen the abuse of before in the past. It's not an election pledge (i.e vote for me and I will give you twice the price for your rice).

 

And another thing, none of the text in the article is in quotes even though it implies a quote. Which would make it a selective opinion. More poor journalism (although the "other" rag is much worse for this kind of thing).

I am not pro junta, just anti misleading press conglomerates.

If you want to bribe people then use your own money, not everyone else's.

Sent from my Redmi Note 5 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

The general studied Thaksins policies well copying them. The hypocrite when Thaksin did it he was against it and now its ok.

It was vote buying then and its vote buying now.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

christmas? what has christmas got to do with this story?

2 hours ago, fforest1 said:

Can any one say Obama phone...

The Obama phone lady...

 

 

easy to  see why  some  people shouldnt be  allowed to vote????

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...The raft of benefits will cost billions of baht in tax money as the government gears up its state welfare campaign ahead of the general election..."

 

After the election, new criteria will be established to cut the "loses" to the program in the name of "good government".

 

The poor will go back to being poor and unassisted.

 

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

 

 

For all those who find this garnering favour, well, it worked for Thaksin United, didn't it?

It is called populist politics.

Widely used in the western world also, mostly for the big corporations, big shareholders and so on.

 

53 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

christmas? what has christmas got to do with this story?

Oops, thought they were on about these Goodies for a minute. !!!!. 

 

 

Nothing changes in this ccountry when it comes to get voters. The now ruling junta is doing the same as they blamed before the parties and government beeing in power and the taxpayers pay the bill and can't get rid of all the guys they would need to kick out to have a chance to change into a little bit of a democracy

You can expect the Internet ,you pay for,to go to a crawl,

while those that are getting it for free all check their Facebook

page.just more blatant vote buying.

regards worgeordie

6 hours ago, webfact said:

"......the government has finalised plans to give more than 11 million low-income people free Internet SIM cards"

I read where it is officially referred to as the "Prayutphone" sim. I joke not.

11 million votes in the bag for the pro-junta Parties. I doubt even Thaksin would have stooped to such a degree of obvious vote buying and pretentiousness. 

Can anyone say hypocritical 'populist move'?

Free beer, lottery tickets and som tam would be more like it!

Free beer, lottery tickets and som tam would be more like it!

This could be brilliant or incredibly stupid. There are far more poor in Thailand that wealthy so providing the poor incentives to vote for Prayuth may garner huge numbers of votes. On the other hand most poor do not traditionally vote and the more educated may push back and vote against Prayuth. It will be interesting to see how the junta rounds up these poor voters and gets them to locations to vote. With out that piece this effort will not have its intended result.

 

This is not much different in tax money being used to support the poor in other countries although in most of those locations it is not strategically timed to steal an election and it is credited more as a function of the government and not as a grand gesture by its jaded leader.

 

 

christmas? what has christmas got to do with this story?

Or....what does any reference to Christmas have anything to do with Thais and Thai society?

Just straight up vote buying.  Can’t you o to jail for that ????

 

Just straight up vote buying.  Can’t you o to jail for that ????

Not if you had the foresight to award yourself and your esteemed colleagues lifetime immunity from prosecution. I bet Thaksin and Yingluck wish they had thought of that.

Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said it would benefit farmers, for example, who could access market crop prices and other useful data in real time.

 

Holy Mother! What a load of crap. I can just imagine an uneducated rice or pig farmer using his basic smart phone to access and evaluate critical trends and financial data. Similar to what another poster said, the free data plan would be more likely used for tittie viewing on world-wide porn sites (isn't that illegal in Thailand).

Why not buy a couple hundred highly computerized John Deere farm tractors to harvest the rice!

These digitally controlled devices would be just as useless of an expenditure of OPM (Other People's Money) as the free sim card program.

Vote buying couldn't get any more blatant. And the timing ...... 555.