A flawed but potentially helpful plan

The new welfare card system the government is introducing on October 1 presents a potentially better alternative to politicians’ 
populist policies as Thailand reforms its socio-economic measures to help low-income people. Despite some shortcomings, the new system – which covers about 11.6 million people who earn less than Bt100,000 per year or Bt8,400 per month – is designed to be more efficient and effective than 
previous innovations to help the poor, which proved to be wasteful or prone to corruption.
Once registered and verified as being within the designated income bracket, welfare cardholders are entitled to a variety of low-cost essentials and state subsidies. These include a small monthly cash payment, free rides on public buses and trains, cheaper cooking gas, electricity and household water, and subsidised consumer goods at government-designated Thong Fah stores.
Anusorn Tamajai, dean of economics at Rangsit University, said the government adopted the new welfare system because the country is facing an increased fiscal burden following years of budget deficits and reform is underway focusing on citizens genuinely in need of help. The government will be able to reduce its fiscal burden because it will no longer be providing basic welfare to everyone. Off the list will be people not strictly entitled to state aid. 
Critics have maintained, though, that basic education and healthcare services should be available to everyone, as enshrined in the previous charter, the 1997 “People’s Constitution”. 
Anusorn acknowledges there are weaknesses in the new system. It might not, for example, cover some genuinely needy persons, such as those who lose their jobs, become physically disabled or are unable to apply for a welfare card in any given year and must wait until the next.
The government is expected to use the new system as a tool for revamping the current universal-healthcare programme and further reduce its budget burden as a factor of rising healthcare expenditures. It is likely that people who are not low-income earners will have to help the government cover their medical costs.
Nimit Tien-udom, director of the Aids Access Foundation, has also pointed out that the welfare card system will not address several issues facing low-income people. For 
example, a monthly payment of Bt200-Bt300 per person to cover basic necessities is not enough, he said, and cardholders will only be able buy subsidised items at government-sponsored stores.
Given that Thailand is edging ever closer to becoming an ageing society, the government is understandably worried about public expenditures on healthcare skyrocketing in the next few decades. Helping the poor has long been one of the country’s most daunting challenges, but it has never been addressed with adequate efficiency. Lack of transparency in the process and widespread corruption are also major issues.
To be sustainable, major reform is inevitable, and the new welfare card system holds the potential to help address these issues as the government prepares to set up a Bt50-billion central fund to finance various subsidy programmes for the grass-roots population in the fiscal 2018 budget.
Effective from October 1, the budget will be used to cover state expenses for the 11.67 million welfare cardholders. The fund will also provide training and related services to people whose incomes are less than Bt30,000 per year so that they or their children can get state-sponsored training to have a chance to get better-paying jobs.