TDRI blames digital-wallet scheme for budget bill delay, cuts growth projection

TDRI also claimed on Monday that this delay would affect the country’s economic growth next year. The agency has cut GDP growth in this year’s second quarter to 1.8% from 3% and that of the entire year to 2.5-3% from 2.7-3.7%.

Nonarit Bisonyabut, a senior academic with TDRI, admitted that there is no clear-cut evidence on how the digital wallet scheme will contribute to the budget’s delay. “But it is difficult to deny a connection between the delay of the budget bill’s enactment because the source of the funding for the 10,000-baht digital wallet is still uncertain,” he said.

He added that the government may have to use money from the 2024 fiscal budget to finance the scheme, so it is inevitable that it is causing a delay. This will eventually add to economic woes, over and above the problems caused by geopolitical conflicts and the slowdown in tourism.

He also claimed that the delay in the budget bill’s enactment will affect the government’s investments as state agencies will have to depend on the budget framework of fiscal 2023.

As per the Budget Bureau’s timeline, the budget bill is expected to clear the second and third readings in early April. Normally, the budget bill is enacted before the end of the fiscal year in September, but the current government only took office in September.

Meanwhile, the ruling Pheu Thai Party had promised to grant all Thai citizens aged 16 and above a 10,000-baht digital wallet to be used within 4 kilometres of their registered address.