Government House, 'Chulaphan' confirms 'Digital Wallet Project' still has a budget of 500 billion baht, using money from the 67-68 budget, cutting out Section 28, assigning it to the Ministry of Commerce to consider the firearms product group, whether to join or cut out of this project. Mr. Chulaphan Amornvivat, Deputy Minister of Finance, revealed that the meeting of the policy committee for the 10,000 baht top-up project via digital wallets resolved to approve the new source structure of funds. The reason for the change was that it was done in accordance with the concerns of the inspection agencies. However, he confirmed that the project size was not reduced and it would remain at 50 million people as before. However, when looking at past government projects, no project had more than 90% of registrants. Therefore, a budget of 45 million people was set, or a budget of approximately 450 billion baht. However, if there are fewer or more registrants, a budget management mechanism will be used to ensure that t here is enough budget for this project. Mr. Chulaphan continued that from the consideration, it was seen that there was a need to prepare a smaller budget, coupled with concerns about the use of Section 28, and now nearing the end of the fiscal year 67, the clarity of the money began to be seen. The Ministry of Finance and the office discussed and proposed a new budget framework structure, which the meeting agreed that Section 28 would not be used, and would be used from the 67 and 68 budget sources, with a sufficient budget and operations within the budget framework. Mr. Chulaphan explained the sources of funds, including the 2024 budget, which comes from an additional budget of 122 billion baht, which will be submitted to the parliament meeting on July 17, and the budget for fiscal management and budget management of another 43 billion baht, some of which may be the central budget, but not the only part. In addition, the 2025 budget of 152 billion baht and the 2025 fiscal management and budget management budget of 132 billion baht were used, confirming that the 2025 budget could be managed within the framework received, whether it was a budget that was not tied up in time or a budget that was not yet completed, and the budget management mechanisms were quite diverse, confirming that the allocated budget was still considered to be able to create an economic whirlwind. Mr. Chulaphan said that the registration opening will be explained on July 24. Today, the meeting assigned the board of directors to set the details of the registration start date again. As for the work on the registration system, there has been satisfactory progress. As for the project timeline, it will be presented to the cabinet next week. Mr. Chulaphan said that the meeting assigned the Ministry of Commerce to be able to determine products that cannot participate in the project or the Negative List, whether adding or reducing if necessary according to the situation. However, it must be proposed to the Subcommittee on the 10,000 baht top-up project via digital wallets again. 'Today, there are proposals from some departments, for example, those that have not been discussed yet, such as firearms and military equipment, which have not been considered in the subcommittee. This is another group that needs to be considered. We have accepted the proposal for the Ministry of Commerce to review and present to the committee,' said Mr. Chulaphan. In addition, the meeting considered disqualifying groups of individuals and shops that had violated the conditions of government projects in the past or had sued to claim refunds in the past, totaling tens of thousands of cases. Source: Thai News Agency