PUBLISHED : 19 Nov 2023 at 10:32
A majority of people do not agree with the government’s plan to propose a bill to seek a 500-billion-baht loan to fund the digital wallet scheme although they support the 10,000-baht handout, according to the result of an opinion survey by National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted on Nov 13-16 by telephone interviews with 1,310 people aged 18 and over of various levels of education, occupations and incomes throughout the country to compile their opinion after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin deliver a statement outlining the handout programme in detail on Nov 10.
Under the programme, the 10,000-baht handout will be offered to Thais aged 16 and older who earn less than 70,000 baht per month and/or have under 500,000 baht in bank deposits. Based on these criteria, an estimated 50 million people will be eligible — down from the 56 million intended originally.
Of the respondents, 79.85% said they were eligible for the handout, 11.68% not sure about their eligibility and 8.47% not eligible.
Of those who were not eligible and not sure about their eligibility (264), when asked whether they felt disappointed, 68.18% said not at all; 11.36% not quite disappointed; 8.71% disappointed; 7.58% much disappointed; and 4.17% had no answer or were not interested.
Asked whether they agreed with the criteria set for eligibility, a majority, 66.33%, agreed – 40.53% very much and 25.80% moderately. On the other side, 20,30% totally disagreed and 12.67% disagreed. The rest, 0.69%, had no answer or were not interested.
Asked about the condition that they can spend the 10,000-baht handout to buy only food, drinks and consumer goods only, 50.69% disagreed and 49.16% agreed with it, while 0.15% had no answer or were not interested.
Asked about the government’s plan to propose a bill to seek a 500-billion-baht loan to fund the programme, 50.69% totally disagreed and 18.70% disagreed. On the other side, 14.89% agreed with it and 13.35% said it was highly agreeable. The rest, 2.37%, had no answer or were not interested.
Finally, when asked what they thought about the government’s 10,000-baht digital money handout policy after listening to Mr Srettha’s statement, 51.08% agreed with it and 48.16 disagreed. The rest, 0.76%, had no answer or were not interested.