More than 610,000 applications for the government’s 5,000 baht cash handout to help ease the financial impact of the covid-19 situation have been canceled due to fear of legal action.
The campaign, called “You will never be left behind”, is designed to assist people across Thailand who are struggling financially due to job loss, closure of their business, or other related effects from the coronavirus.
However, millions of Thai people applied for the benefit, some of whom did not match the criteria set out by the government.
In response, the Finance Ministry of Thailand releases a statement informing citizens that anyone who provided fake information on their application form in an attempt to receive the benefit would face prosecution.
The ministry also added a “cancel” button to the online application portal, allowing people to withdraw their registrations if they had “no intention of providing false information.”
Since the addition of the button, 610,000 people, or 76,000 people per day, have canceled their applications.
Some 26 million Thai citizens have applied for the handout so far. However, those who provide false information or knowingly applied without meeting the criteria can face three years in jail or a 60,000 baht fine.
Earlier this week, a woman in Phuket escaped charges for calling the subsidy “small change” in a Facebook post.
Source: Bangkok Post
