The government says it will consider extending the Thais Help Thais Plus stimulus programme by the end of this month, noting that if the Middle East energy crisis persists, further measures to ease the cost of living may be needed.
Speaking after the launch of the Nok Krasip (Whispering Bird) project, an AI assistant designed to help vendors increase their sales, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said that over the next two to three weeks he will consider whether it is still necessary to extend the Thais Help Thais Plus programme for the public.
He said that if the energy crisis in the Middle East persists, this would be a factor in determining whether the programme should be extended. The Thais Help Thai Plus programme was introduced because of the energy crisis and soaring oil prices.
“Today, I walked through a market and heard calls to extend the programme for another one or two months. This was the majority view I heard. I will listen to the voices of market vendors and quickly consider the matter. There is still funding remaining,” he said.
He said there are several factors to be considered in deciding whether to extend the programme.
“There was still fighting [in the Middle East] this morning [yesterday], so I think oil prices could rise further. We will have to take this into consideration because we want to help reduce people’s cost of living,” he said.
“If the energy crisis has not subsided, we will use this as a factor in considering whether to extend the programme. The decision will be considered within the next 2-3 weeks,” Mr Ekniti said.
According to the finance minister, currently 26 million people are using the Thais Help Thais Plus programme, while another 13 million people holding state welfare cards have received additional funds under the 400-billion-baht emergency loan decree.
This means that nearly 40 million people have received assistance through the government’s cost-of-living support measures, he said.
In addition, about 1.2 million shops are participating in the Thais Help Thais Plus programme, he added.
As of Wednesday, total spending under the programme had reached 150 billion baht, with 16-17% of the spending taking place in Bangkok and the remainder distributed across the country, particularly among small and micro businesses, he added.
Asked whether he was concerned that domestic spending would decline once the programme ends, Mr Ekniti said that historical data from previous government co-payment programmes showed that it could increase vendors’ sales by 500-600%.
After the programme ended, vendors who participated in upskilling training and were able to sell online continued to see their sales increase by 200%, he said.
The Nok Krasip project, an AI tool integrated into Krungthai Bank’s Pao Tang app to help vendors improve their sales, can analyse sales performance, such as identifying days with strong and weak sales.
This enables vendors to better manage inventory levels during different periods, preventing products from being left over or running out of stock.
In addition, data from Nok Krasip can be used as supporting evidence when applying for loans from financial institutions.
Government Savings Bank has now made available a programme for vendors offering loans of up to 50,000 baht at an interest rate of 0.75% per month, with no collateral required.
Krungthai Bank offers loans of up to 500,000 baht at an interest rate of 11%.
Meanwhile, the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation provides guarantees of 5,000-50,000 baht per borrower.