The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) is studying whether the budgets for fiscal 2019 and 2020 are sufficient to finance the welfare policies promised by political campaigns.
The FPO's planned study was delegated by finance permanent secretary Prasong Poontaneat, said director-general Lavaron Sangsnit.
State spending on welfare policies is regulated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Annual Budget Expenditure Act and the Public Debt Management Act.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which came into force last April, is designed to maximise budget spending and prevent politicians from repeatedly using off-budget borrowing to finance projects.
According to the act, payment liabilities incurred from pork-barrel spending are capped at 30% of annual budget expenditure.
State expenditure for fiscal 2020 is set at 3.2 trillion baht, up 200 billion baht from fiscal 2019, with a budget deficit of 450 billion, equal to that of the previous fiscal year.
A slew of welfare policies have been touted in the run-up to the general election, prompting concern as to whether the state budget is sufficient to fund such packages.
Mr Prasong recently said the government has limited room to run up debt for funding populist campaigns, as the 2019 annual budget expenditure has already been earmarked, while only 2% of budget expenses are left over for the fiscal 2020 budget.
The FPO on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chulalongkorn University economics faculty to design, develop and raise efficiency of the registration for the government's welfare and subsidy scheme for low-income earners.
The welfare smartcard scheme uses about 40 billion baht to assist 14.5 million recipients, Mr Lavaron said.
The MoU is aimed at better accessing the needy, he said. Tailor-made welfare packages could be adopted in the future to match the demand of people in each area and group.
The FPO is conducting a study to tweak the qualification criteria for welfare recipients by replacing individual income with a family-based one after reports that some welfare smartcard holders are not poor.
According to the most recent criteria, those who are eligible for the welfare and subsidy scheme must be Thai nationals aged 18 or older, be unemployed, have annual income of not more than 100,000 baht and have financial assets of not more than 100,000 baht.
Eligible recipients can own a house measuring up to 25 square wah, or a condo unit spanning up to 35 square metres.
