Thai govt to give away 200,000 baht for each village

[webfact]

Government to give away 200,000 baht for each village



BANGKOK: -- The government has set aside a 15 billion baht budget from the Central Fund to be distributed to 74,900 villages throughout the country to be used for the strengthening of the rural infrastructures or public service activities.

Government spokesman Maj-Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that these handouts, averaging 200,000 baht for each of the villages, would be on top of the Tambon Fund – five million baht for each tambon – the fund to improve the livelihood of people in the villages totaling 60 billion baht and the fund for investment in rural infrastructure amounting to about 500,000 baht for each village.

The village committee of each village will propose projects to match the 200,000 baht funding with the recommendations of local administrators and agriculture officials. Then the projects will be submitted to the district-level committees which will approve the projects before they are sent to the Interior Ministry, according to Maj-Gen Sansern.

The spokesman disclosed that earlier the Finance Ministry proposed 300,000 baht for each village but the cabinet felt that 200,000 baht should be enough because several development funds had already been injected into the villages.

All the projects to be funded by these handouts will be implemented as of May 1 and the funds should be disbursed not later than July 31.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/158508

-- Thai PBS 2016-04-07

[ourmanflint]

Excellent news! That's 170,000 baht for each kamnan and 30,000 baht for a new road outside the Kamnans house

[shirtless]

im so sure it will be fairly distrbuted

[lkv]

They've been taking lessons from T.

No later than 31 July.

Then in August vote correctly, we gave you money,no?

[colinneil]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

[bdenner]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

Edited April 6, 2016 by bdenner

[NongKhaiKid]

There will be NO populist policies !

Now just who said that ?

[khwaibah]

200K Lao Khao and Chang all around.

[saakura]

When is the referendum on the new constitution?

[selftaopath]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

From what I understand... could be wrong...., the govt. in BKK practically ignored Isaan in the past. Taksin dithered out a morsel of funds and the Isaan villagers were overjoyed. They loved him for giving them a pittance of what he later stole from the country. The Villagers voted for him b/c he gave them SOMETHING. And yes they were/are blind to his thievery. Corrupt escalated and became the only thing politicians/police/govt. workers were/are interested in. Something needed changing.... Not that military rule is the answer but what other options are available?

Thailand is so utterly entrenched in corruption it may never reach it's potential but remain developing for centuries while it's neighbors progress and their people prosper.

Edited April 7, 2016 by selftaopath

[JAG]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

Not having a working knowledge of Thai local government acronyms (themselves translated from a wholly different language, which doesn't share an alphabet) is of course reasonable grounds to debar someone from a discussion!

Your post would carry more weight if you explained the acronyms.

[BSJ]

So all this money will be distributed before the referendum?

Or should I have said "This money will be distributed before the referendum!"

Yes, I saw the dates in the article.

Edited April 7, 2016 by BSJ

[LannaGuy]

absolutely nothing to do with the referendum!

[bdenner]

<Snip>

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

Not having a working knowledge of Thai local government acronyms (themselves translated from a wholly different language, which doesn't share an alphabet) is of course reasonable grounds to debar someone from a discussion!

Your post would carry more weight if you explained the acronyms.

They actually use the English acronym is the description of this grant. Small Medium Large - the sum granted is based on the village population in our case some 1500 and we are classified as Large. I'm not disbarring anyone just suggesting the brain is placed into gear before the keyboard is engaged.

[torpedo1970]

Ah, summer bonus for the village headsmen !

[mtls2005]

I think it's safe to say that the Junta is not going to let the Charter Referendum fail due to a lack of "incentives".

About 375 baht/vote. (assumes 40 million voters, but much higher as a few people would have voted for the charter anyway)

Now if they can just slip in a few more goodies; like allowing the appointed Senate to solely select a non-MP as PM. . But just for the five-year "transition" period, and not the 20 year "reform" period.

[Krataiboy]

The government doesn't have any money other than the revenue from taxation. Maybe they should ask the electorate what they think before trying to buy the rural vote.

[tigermoth]

The previous elected government was also doing this in case it had been forgotten and it was more than 200,000.

[cockatoowho]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

Good try, but you are convincing no one.

[Eric Loh]

Is that considered as vote buying, Khun Somchai?

[wabothai]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

Not direct access perhaps but indirectly for certain.

[mrrizzla]

imagine the seethe if a Mr T affiliated government did this...

[tuanku]

Crude attempt to win the hearts and minds or at least the wallets, of the village heads. Now they will be expected to deliver votes for the referendum on the basis of bhunkhun.

[Srikcir]

Why stop at Bt200,000 for each of the 74,900 villages .... why not Bt1,000,000 for each?

Surely the economic welfare of the villages is as important as the billions of baht being spent on military weapons and Bangkok's transportation infrastructure, if not more so.

What these Prayut handouts come down to are "gifts" to the majority non-elite population from the minority elite with the simple intention of distorting the junta's value as the nation's rulers. Even the government refers to these unbudgeted distributions as "Returning Happiness to the Thai People."

But it is the minority elite who is deciding when, whom and how much receives distribution of the nation's wealth (and sometimes debt) - not the majority non-elite population. This latest gift not only coincides with worsening economic news for the nation but also with the vote on the referendum. So it would seem superficially that it's just another form of vote buying.

[saakura]

The previous elected government was also doing this in case it had been forgotten and it was more than 200,000.

Yes, we all remember. And hope you remember that this was one of the reasons the military gave for bringing down successive elected governments.

[Doc46]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

;;;;;SML;;;;; Screw My Life;;;;; ??

[halloween]

The government doesn't have any money other than the revenue from taxation. Maybe they should ask the electorate what they think before trying to buy the rural vote.

Precedents say that the electorate will vote for any handout, even elect known criminals to office to get it.

[ddavidovsky]

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

Audits at village level? By whom? And who audits the auditors?

[halloween]

Why stop at Bt200,000 for each of the 74,900 villages .... why not Bt1,000,000 for each?

Surely the economic welfare of the villages is as important as the billions of baht being spent on military weapons and Bangkok's transportation infrastructure, if not more so.

What these Prayut handouts come down to are "gifts" to the majority non-elite population from the minority elite with the simple intention of distorting the junta's value as the nation's rulers. Even the government refers to these unbudgeted distributions as "Returning Happiness to the Thai People."

But it is the minority elite who is deciding when, whom and how much receives distribution of the nation's wealth (and sometimes debt) - not the majority non-elite population. This latest gift not only coincides with worsening economic news for the nation but also with the vote on the referendum. So it would seem superficially that it's just another form of vote buying.

You think more money should go to villages, but you don't like THIS money going to villages? Let me know if you hear of any, even one, village that rejects it.

[Thaddeus]

Our Poo Yai retired last week..... just seen him kicking himself.