I’ve only been to Bangkok in less than a year, but I’ve seen a lot about this country. There are things which I like about it, and there are incidents which I hate them to the most. Things like seizing the airports sound like extremely childish to me, and the country’s image and economy is clearly damaged by now, if it’s not because of the global economy meltdown.

But then, I’m amazed at how the government of Thailand is willing to help its people.

The monthly salary ceiling of employees eligible to get one-off allowance of Bt2,000 from the government is now at Bt14,999.

The ceiling was originally at Bt14,000.

“We have raised the ceiling because we want the allowance to cover more people at the time of economic crisis,” Labour Minister Phaithoon Kaeothong said Wednesday.

He said Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu, who oversees economic affairs, had already approved the adjustment.

According to Phaithoon, up to 8.13million employees will be eligible the Bt2,000 special allowance. These employees are members of the social-security scheme.

Too bad I’m not a Thai nation, so I’m not eligible for the plan! Bt2,000 is like RM200, and even if it may sound less to most of us, but you can clearly make good use of the money. Bear in mind that Chinese New Year is around the corner, that Bt2,000 can be used to fork out some angpau.

At the same time, we still don’t have to pay water bill, if it’s not exceed a certain amount. So far, we haven’t paid our water bill since we moved here. The electricity bill comes with 30% discount too, but I’m not sure about January. We shall see when the bill comes.