The Finance Ministry is planning the second phase of the government’s co-payment scheme to stimulate spending during the New Year festival as consumers and vendors urge the government to extend the scheme to next year.
Pornchai Teerawet, deputy spokesman of the Finance Ministry, said that people were actively spending through the half-half co-payment scheme and the prime minister allowed the ministry to study the groups of people who should benefit from its second phase. Officials were studying the necessity of the scheme extension and calculating a budget for the new phase to inspire spending in the New Year period, he said.
According to Mr Pornchai, consumers and vendors are more familiar with financial transactions in the co-payment scheme.
As of Nov 15, more than 8 million people spent in the scheme and 680,000 vendors joined it, including about 90,000 street vendors. More vendors can apply to participate in the scheme as the government has no deadline for their participation.
The government intends to promote cashless spending during the New Year period through its incentives for domestic tours and shopping, more benefits for holders of government welfare cards and the co-payment scheme in which the state pays half the prices of purchased consumer products with the total subsidy being capped at 3,000 baht per participating consumer.
The government expects the stimulus measures to inject about 200 billion baht into the Thai economy during the fourth quarter of this year. (TNA)
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