Government finalising cash handouts to farmers

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Government plans cash handouts to farmers' families of between Bt15,000 and Bt30,000 a month per family. The figure is yet to be finalised by ministers and the cost is estimated at Bt130 billion to Bt400 billion.

 

The Finance Ministry will propose to the Cabinet to support farmers affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, Lavaron Sangsnit, director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office, said.

 

Farmers are not covered by the current cash handout scheme which gives each worker Bt5,000 a month for three months. The scheme covers freelancers and self-employed individuals estimated to total 9 million people.

 

Under the initial proposal, each farmer will get Bt15,000 and about nine million families are supposed to be eligible. The total cost is about Bt130 billion.

 

Alongkorn Polabutr, adviser to the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, however, said the ministry wants the government to give as much as Bt 30,000 per farmer family. There are about 13 million families. The cost is estimated to be Bt400 billion. Thai farmers also have been affected by drought while their family members, who worked in cities, have recently returned to their homes due to business shutdown.

 

For a majority of farmer families, the larger part of their income is derived from non-agriculture activities including money sent by family members who work in cities or abroad.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385848

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-13

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Another scandal in the making ... incredibly difficult to administer something like this and keep it corruption free.

They haven't helped the rest of the population.

What makes farmers any different?

should be enough for an iphone 11

No Thai I know got the 5,000.....I guess only 7% of 24 million got the 5,000...So I would expect most farmers will end up getting Jack....

Most Thai's I know who are NOT farmers are declined their 5000-- cash handout because the system say they are farmers. Can they now apply for this?

A post that had a misspelling of a word and the bickering session about the misspelling has been removed.

4 hours ago, bubblegum said:

Most Thai's I know who are NOT farmers are declined their 5000-- cash handout because the system say they are farmers. Can they now apply for this?

I too know of about 120 people who have now been incorrectly labelled a farmer, and, unfairly, been declined the 5000 baht. They are market traders, whose markets were ordered closed by the government. They are not farmers. They seem to be now categorized into a 'no-man's land' as they do not have the greenbook farmers registration papers. I also personally know of a registered farmer, who claimed, and has been accepted! As well as the unemployed daughter, passed!  What are the genuinely deserving applicants to do now? There is a big swelling of discontent and the feeling of abandonment on social media. Most are very desperate now. Such a sad time.

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Under the initial proposal, each farmer will get Bt15,000 and about nine million families are supposed to be eligible.

 

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Alongkorn Polabutr, adviser to the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, however, said the ministry wants the government to give as much as Bt 30,000 per farmer family. There are about 13 million families.

Looks like another 4 million discrepancy.

It probably depends how it will be implemented.

There are no details revealed yet . Some newsarticle writing a one time payment instead of a monthly payment.

 

Worst case scenario would be a one time payment of 15k. Since you have to divide that payment through the number of family members, the amount each person getting is very small. If you get 15k and e. g. 3 family members, that would only be 5k THB per person compared to 15-30k (3 or 6 months) with the 5000 thb handout scheme.

Also usually farmers getting a yearly subsidy. If it is only a replacement of that subsidy, than they would not gain really much by it.

 

Best case scenario if that would be a really a monthly payment over several months of 30k. I somehow doubt that scenario.

15.000 baht/month for 3 months doesn't even cover our loss this year.  The new roofing sheets and labour cost for the new house roof cost almost that!