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Thai deputy finance minister dismisses claim digital wallet scheme copied from Japan

He also said the 10,000 digital wallet scheme will begin in February as scheduled.

The Nation

The Nation

         

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Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat dismissed Move Forward’s claim that Pheu Thai’s digital wallet scheme had been modelled after a similar scheme in Japan. PHOTO: THE NATION

October 24, 2023

BANGKOK – He insisted that the scheme had been conceived by Pheu Thai on its own.

Julapun leads a subcommittee in charge of working out details on handing 10,000 baht to Thais via a Blockchain-based digital wallet and where this money can be spent.

The minister said he had heard a similar scheme had been implemented in Japan in 1999 when the government handed out shopping coupons to Japanese nationals.

  He said he would seek more details from Move Forward party-list MP Sirikanya Tansakul, who had raised the issue, so he could compare the digital wallet scheme to Japan’s 1999 programme in more detail.

“But I believe they can’t be compared as they were applied in different contexts,” Julapan said.

He also said the 10,000 digital wallet scheme for Thais aged 16 and above will begin in February as scheduled. The scheme will not be delayed because his committee’s meeting had been postponed from this week, he added. The meeting had been postponed because the panel was waiting for relevant government agencies to compile reports on legal complications and procedures related to the scheme, he said.

Julapun added that his panel required these reports before it could start convening and he did not know when this would be.

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