BMA faces e-ID cards shortage
The Interior Ministry has collected 12,500 blank identity cards from across the country to replenish the stocks of the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA), which earlier this week ran out of the materials needed to make electronic identity cards.
The BMA have now distributed 250 of the cards to each of the capital's 50 district offices for use as Smart ID Cards, which are imprinted with people's personal information, Bangkok Deputy Clerk Rattapol Meethanathavorn said yesterday. Due to the shortage of the magnetic-stripped cards, the BMA has only issued Smart ID Cards to 15-year-olds applying for their first ID cards, people who lost their old ID cards and students in need of ID cards for student-loan contracts, he said. The BMA has also asked people whose ID cards have expired to keep their old cards for another 60 days before applying for replacements, Rattapol said. People who need ID cards for financial transactions will be given temporary copies. Rattapol said the Interior Ministry had collected the 12,500 blank cards from nine regional centres. He estimated that this batch of cards would last only until the end of this month. He said the Interior Ministry is procuring more blank cards.
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