Thailand’s Finance Ministry announced the end of the two phases of the populist co-payment scheme on March 31st, with total spending amounting to 102.065 billion baht, 52.2 billion by consumers and 49.8 billion borne by the taxpayer.
Kulaya Tantitemit, director of the Fiscal Policy Office and spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, said Thursday that 14,793,602 registered consumers had taken advantage of the scheme, with 92% of them having spent over 3,000 baht each. 7,819,925 spent up to their 3,500 baht limit.
The highest spenders were in Bangkok, Chon Buri, Samut Prakan, Songkhla and Chiang Mai respectively. The spending helped to support domestic consumption, hard hit by various factors related to COVID-19, in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021.
Hailing the stimulus measure as a huge success, Kulaya said, however, that 85 cases of irregularities were identified among consumers and shops taking part in the scheme, adding that these people and businesses will be barred from participating in future such stimulus schemes.
