The Finance Ministry has revised the eligibility criteria for the state welfare card programme, a move expected to reduce the number of beneficiaries from 13.2 million people.
Speaking after the cabinet approved the new criteria, the first major revision since 2022, finance permanent secretary Lavaron Sangsnit said the main change is a shift from a household-based assessment that combined the income and assets of all household members to an individual-based assessment. This shift aims to address past instances where households containing both wealthy and low-income members were collectively granted benefits.
