Bangkok: Gamblers rejoice! “Retirement Lottery” passes with 427 votes. “Phao Bhum” insists on coming out to fight the “underground lottery” that is fun to buy but sad when losing the lottery. Indicates that it is appropriate to start at 15 years. Believes that there is maturity to make a decision. Prepare to issue a law that the ministry can withdraw money before 60 years.
According to Thai News Agency, the House of Representatives meeting was chaired by Mr. Pichet Chueamuangphan, First Vice President of the House of Representatives, to consider the draft National Savings Fund Act (No. ..) B.E. . Retirement Lottery or GSF Lottery, which the Special Committee (Committee) had already considered. The meeting allowed members to express their opinions. Most MPs supported the retirement lottery as a way for Thais who like to take risks to save money, but they wanted to add a rule that allows people to withdraw money from buying retirement lottery tickets for use in stages, without having to wait until the age of 60, which is too long. This is because buyers are entering their education and working years and need capital for their living expenses. Meanwhile, some MPs wanted the criteria for buying GSF lottery tickets to be changed from 15 to 18 years old.
Mr. Paopum Rojanasakul, Deputy Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Committee, explained that the retirement lottery is not gambling because every baht and satang purchased is savings. Therefore, the age base should be opened up as much as possible. People aged 15 years have the maturity to make decisions and can start saving. When compared to the Government Savings Bank and the Government Savings Bank lottery, the age limit is 7 years, which is shorter than the retirement lottery. Therefore, the Committee considered that 15 years is appropriate to support the country’s savings. And saving is not something to be disliked. The sooner you save, the better it will be.
Mr. Pao Bhum continued that as for the request to withdraw money to buy retirement lottery tickets before retirement, the committee has added new criteria by issuing a ministerial regulation to allow some money to be withdrawn before the age of 60, for example, when accumulating enough money to support living, the excess money can be withdrawn, creating a balance between savings and the need to use the money to make it more flexible.
Mr. Pao Bhum continued that the reason for limiting the purchase of retirement lottery tickets at 50 baht per ticket to 3,000 baht per person per month is because we open the rights to everyone aged 15 years and over who has Thai nationality, so there are both rich and not-so-rich people. We don’t want rich people to buy them all, so we set the limit at 3,000 baht per person per month to prevent people with high incomes from taking the rights of people with low incomes. Our intention is that people with low incomes are the foundation of the country, so we must develop this group of people to save.
‘Another intention of the retirement lottery is the underground lottery because this is a lottery where the money does not disappear. It is a lottery where every baht becomes savings. Therefore, by itself, it can compete with the underground lottery. Imagine the underground lottery. The people are happy when they buy it, but they are sad when the lottery eats it. And the money that is eaten by the lottery goes underground and does not enter the economic system, which is not beneficial to the country. But the retirement lottery is beneficial to economic development,’ said Mr. Pao Bhum.
After the MPs had discussed all sections, it was time for the third reading to be voted on. The meeting voted to approve the draft National Savings Fund Act with 427 votes in favor, 1 vote against, 3 abstentions, and 4 votes not cast.