Registration for the 3rd phase of the Chim-Shop-Chai (Eat-Shop-Spend) stimulus package closed at 5pm today, but the number of elderly people subscribing to the program only reached 281,115, well short of the 500,000 target.

The overall target for the third phase of the program is two million, with 500,000 places reserved for the elderly. 

Mr. Pornchai Thiravet, an advisor to the Fiscal Policy Office and deputy spokesman of the Finance Ministry, disclosed today that a total of 1,448,012 people had subscribed to the program.

Under the third phase of the program, there is no 1,000 baht giveaway for the subscribers, but they will get a refund of up to 15% on spending up to 30,000 baht, and a 20% refund for spending not exceeding 50,000 baht.

Mr. Pornchai said that, since the launch of the first phase of the program on September 27^th, 11,769,870 subscribers have spent a total of 17.87 billion baht, 11.62 billion baht through the Channel 1 G-Wallet and 6.25 billion baht through Channel 2 G-Wallet, averaging 25,314 baht spending per subscriber.

Subscribers to all the three phases are entitled to spend until January 31^st.