Don’t empty BAAC’s coffers for digital wallet scheme, warns BOT
The Bank of Thailand has warned that the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) will suffer liquidity problems if the government takes 172 billion baht from it to partially finance the digital wallet scheme.
According to a BOT source, the central bank expressed its fears in a statement to the Cabinet before its weekly meeting on Tuesday, when the controversial scheme was approved in principle.
The government announced it would use 172 billion from the BAAC to pay farmers under the digital wallet scheme, reasoning that it is BAAC’s duty to help farmers. The remainder of the budget will come from the 2024 and 2025 budgets.
The source said the BOT fears that the government’s plan to use 172 billion baht of BAAC’s extra funds would affect its liquidity severely, especially since the government already owes the bank 800 billion baht.
The BOT also fears that the plan will affect BAAC’s existing clients.
Hence, the central bank suggested that the government first consult the Council of State to check whether it can use BAAC’s liquidity for this purpose without violating the BAAC law.
The central bank added that the government should also clearly earmark farmers as the only recipients of the 10,000 digital wallet scheme from the funds taken from BAAC.
