Health officials conduct a drill on responses to a COVID-19 spread in Phayao province on September 2. (Photo: Bangkok Post)
Bangkok (VNA) - The Thai government plans tospend 45 billion THB (about 1.4 billion USD) on cash handouts to 15 millionpeople affected by the economic fallout caused by COVID-19, which is expectedto boost domestic consumption.
Danucha Pichayanan, deputy secretary-general of the Office ofthe National Economic and Social Development Council, said on September 2 thata meeting of the Centre for the Administration of the Economic SituationAffected by COVID-19, approved the cash handouts as an economic stimulusmeasure proposed by the Finance Ministry.
Under the measure, the government will give 3,000-THB cashhandouts to people to buy consumer goods.
They are required to register for the cash and the money will betransferred through the e-wallet, Danucha said.
The Finance Ministry will prepare details of the cash handoutsscheme to present to the centre again and the measure is expected to be implementedfrom next month until the end of the year, he said.
The measure is expected to stimulate cash flow of about 90billion THB in the economy and boost the economy by 0.25 percent, he added.
Meanwhile, the Centre for the Administration of the Economic SituationAffected by COVID-19 also approved the Labour Ministry's request for 23.47billion THB to hire new graduates.
The 23.47 billion THB will come from the 400-billion-THB loanborrowed by the Finance Ministry to tackle the economic effects of the pandemic.
The minister said the project was the right solution to theunemployment problem faced by new graduates.
The second part of the project is the "Thailand Job Expo2020" job fair tentatively scheduled to take place at the end of thismonth.
Around one million positions in the public and private sectorswill be available at the event. /.
