The third phase of the “Chim-Shop-Chai” (Eat-Shop-Spend) program has a special quota of 500,000 reserved for elderly people, in addition to the already fully subscribed quota for 1.5 million for people of all ages.

Mr. Lawan Saengsanit, director of the Fiscal Policy Office, said today that the Finance Ministry has not set a time frame, in which elderly people should subscribe to the scheme, so they do not feel pressured to meet a deadline.

A total of 90,175 older people subscribed to the scheme on the first day, 28.773 people on the second and 15,266 on the third day today (Tuesday).  Added to the 145,000 older people, who signed as part of the main quota, the total number of elderly subscribers in the past three days was 280,000.

Mr. Lawan dismissed as untrue comments on social media that the program for older people was a flop, due to low subscription take-up.

The government rolled out the first phase of “Chim-Shop-Chai” economic stimulus package in September for 10 million people, each of whom were given 1,000 baht to spend outside their home provinces, and 10-15% rebates on spending between 30,000-50,000 baht for tourism purposes.  The scheme has proven to be a great success, with one million people subscribing online within a few hours each day.

This was followed by the second phase of the scheme, for another three million people, in October.