7 million sign up in two days for government's new cash handout scheme

The numbers were up slightly from 6.8 million at 11pm on Friday, when registration opened, said Kulaya Tantitemit, inspector-general at the Finance Ministry.

“This shows that the number of new registrants is gradually slowing down after most people had rushed to register from 6am on Friday,” she said.

Under the RaoChana scheme, people will be given Bt3,500 cash handout for two consecutive months.

The RaoChana website is open for registration from 6am to 11pm daily until February 12, after which names of those who are eligible will be published on the website. The first payment will be made on February 18.

“Although no maximum limit has been set, the Ministry of Finance expects that the total registrants would not exceed 10 million people,” she said. “We estimate that some 31.1 million people will be eligible for the subsidy. Among these, about 14 million are holders of state welfare card, while the other 17 million will come from new registrations and those who had already registered under ‘Let’s Go Halves’ and ‘Let’s Travel Together’ campaigns who fit the RaoChana criteria.”

RaoChana subsidy recipients cannot be those who are under the social security system, government and state enterprise employees and freelancers with high income (as per savings check).

People who do not have a smartphone can register on February 15 at the nearest branch of the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Government Savings Bank and Krungthai Bank.