Retirement lottery to be launched in first quarter of next year
Draft bill amending NSF Act to be sent to Cabinet by November-end
The Finance Ministry has said it would start selling retirement lottery tickets in the first quarter of next year after amending the act on the National Savings Fund (NSF).
The ministry said it had finished drafting a bill to amend the NSF act and has sent it to the Cabinet Secretariat.
The ministry said the NSF would hold a meeting on November 11 to give a final opinion on the project and the opinion and the bill would be sent for deliberations to the Cabinet within this month.
If approved, the bill would be sent to the House of Representatives for deliberation and the project could be launched by the first quarter of next year, the ministry explained.
Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul has said earlier that the retirement lottery project would be expanded to allow people older than 60 years old to buy the lottery as well.
Paopoom said the project was initially conceived to encourage people aged 16 to 60 to buy the lottery as savings for their retired life.
But after the finance minister held public hearings on the project, the public wanted the project to be expanded to allow buyers aged 60 and above.
Paopoom said buyers who are older than 60 would be required to wait 10 years, counting from the first year they buy the lottery, before they could reclaim their money.
For example, if a 62-year-old person buys the retirement lottery, he or she will have to wait until 72 to get the money back.
If the buyer dies before the 10-year period, the money invested in the lottery will be given to his or her heir, Paopoom added.
The project will allow members of the NSF, Social Security Fund and workers, who are not protected by labour protection law, to buy the retirement lottery.
Each lottery ticket sells for 50 baht and a buyer cannot invest more than 3,000 baht per month.
The lottery has three prizes:
● Five one-million baht first prizes
● 10,000 second prizes of a 1,000 baht each
● Special prizes will vary depending on support from various agencies. The prizes may include petrol vouchers, coffee, public transport vouchers and air tickets.
