The extension of the Thais Help Thais Plus co-payment scheme is a response to the ongoing energy crisis, not a populist policy, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said.
Speaking on the Talk with Anutin Cabinet programme on Saturday, Mr Ekniti discussed the details of the initiative. He said that the scheme was launched to cushion the impact of the Middle East crisis, which has significantly driven up the cost of living.
The crisis began with surging oil prices, which subsequently triggered an increase in the cost of consumer goods, outpacing household incomes, he said. The scheme was also specifically designed to support small-scale vendors, he added.
He said the project set a daily spending limit of 200 baht because its core purpose was to help with essential daily expenses, rather than to stimulate extravagant spending. Due to the government’s limited fiscal resources, priority was given exclusively to small shops and street vendors, he noted.
Over the past three months, about 26 million citizens and 1.2 million small shops have generated about 160 billion baht in economic circulation through the scheme, he said.
When asked whether Thais Help Thais Plus was simply a populist plan to distribute money indefinitely, Mr Ekniti denied the claim, reiterating that the extension was driven entirely by the persistent energy crisis.
However, he noted that the energy transition remains the long-term solution. To address this, the government has introduced a separate subsidy scheme providing 50,000 baht per household to incentivise the installation of rooftop solar cells.
“If I wanted to gain political popularity, I would have continued to expand the co-payment measure by drawing from the remaining portion of our 200-billion-baht emergency loan,” Mr Ekniti said. “However, we strictly adhere to fiscal discipline, which is why we only used the initial portion of that 200 billion baht to assist the public. Once we successfully fulfill our energy transition goals, there may be no need to hand out 1,000 baht to the people anymore.”