Cabinet okays THB7 billion compensation for flood victims
The Cabinet on Tuesday resolved to seek a budget of 7 billion baht from the Finance Ministry for paying compensation to flood victims nationwide.
Deputy Finance Minister Santi Promphat said the Cabinet decided to task the Interior Ministry with making the payments to flood victims with the special budget from the Finance Ministry.
The Cabinet agreed on the criteria that a family that had suffered the consequences of flooding for not longer than a month would be eligible for a 5,000-baht compensation.
Those whose houses have been flooded for over a month but not longer than two months, would be eligible for 6,000 baht compensation each. Families whose houses were flooded for longer than two months, would be eligible for 7,000 baht compensation each.
Santi said the Cabinet deliberated on and approved the compensation budget after Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan expressed concern a few weeks ago that many people had lost their income because of the months-long floods.
Santi said Prawit had expressed concern that immediate help and handouts from the authorities were not enough to alleviate the grievances of flood victims.
“The Finance Ministry did not oppose the idea as it realised the grievances of the people and so it would allocate an urgent budget to help them,” Santi said.
He said the Finance Ministry was now waiting for information from the Interior Ministry about the number of eligible families.
