Thai government considering launch of retirement lottery as savings scheme
Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul said on Thursday that the government may launch a new kind of digital lottery to encourage working people to save for their retirement.
The project, however, would start only after amending related laws and the process could take about six months to one year, he said.
Paopoom said the initial plan would have the National Savings Fund sell 50-baht digital lottery tickets to members of the fund, self-insured members of Social Security Fund (insured under Article 40) and freelance workers to buy the retirement lottery at the maximum value of 3,000 baht per month.
He said the target groups might be later expanded.
The money spent on buying the retirement lottery would not be wasted but become savings that the buyers could withdraw when they reach the age of 60, Paopoom added.
The buyers can buy the tickets every day and the draw will be made at 5pm every Friday.
In the initial phase, the lottery would have five first prizes worth a million baht each and 10,000 second prizes of 1,000 baht each.
Paopoom said the retirement lottery project was aimed at solving the issue of retired Thais not having enough money for their old age as most of them were not motivated to save for their retirement.
