Inter-provincial bus stations install EDC machines for welfare card holders

BANGKOK, Sept 22 (TNA) – The Transport Co, Ltd expedited installation of 121 Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines at bus stations nationwide to serve welfare card holders. The President of the state-owned public interprovincial bus service, Jirasak Yaowatchasakul said that after the distribution of the welfare cards for registered poor people, the company worked with Krung Thai Bank for the installation of the EDC machines at three Bangkok’s bus terminals and bus stations across the country. With the machines, card holders can buy interprovincial bus tickets for 500 baht per month, one of the privileges offered by the government for the poor. The cards are not interchangeable. The tickets cannot be returned for cash but the trip can be postponed. For more information, they can call 1490. The e-welfare benefit cards give them monthly allowance of 1,500 baht to buy consumers goods and farm raw materials as well as monthly fare for public transportation. About 12 million people passed the screening to receive the cashless welfare cards. However, card distribution for those in Bangkok and surrounding provinces is postponed due to delay in card production to add two chips for them to use Bangkok’s transportation such as electric trains. (TNA)