The rush to spend the 1,000-baht giveaways, under the government’s “Chim-Shop-Chai” (Eat-Shop-Spend) program, by some 2.5 million successful subscribers has disrupted the computer systems of the state-run Krung Thai Bank, to the extent that the applications had to be temporarily shut down.

The bank suspended use of the “Pao Tang” application from 2am and 5am this morning (Monday) as its officials upgraded the system to fix the problems, apparently caused by a huge number of subscribers spending their giveaway money.

It appeared that many subscribers did not fully understand the working of the application and could not use the money. An informed source at the Finance Ministry said that the subscribers must clearly specify, on their smartphones, the provinces in which they want to spend the money, because the system is connected with the provinces specified.

However, the source said that any subscriber who is unable to use the giveaway money can contact their closest Krung Thai branch for help.

Meanwhile, it was reported that eight million people had subscribed to the program, with one million people registered by 3.06am this morning, the eighth day of the registration.  About 200,000 applicants, however, fail to pass the screening process each day, but they are still eligible to join the program until the target of 10 million subscribers is reached.

Several subscribers reportedly abandoned goods in their shopping carts at Tesco Lotus’s Laksi branch after the “Pao Tang” and “Thoong Ngern” applications at the chain store malfunctioned on Sunday.

Krung Thai Bank, which is the only bank facilitating payments, blamed the failure on the modern trade chain’s management problems.

The bank said that the other department stores, such as Big C and The Mall, did not have a problem with the system because they assigned only a few stores to take part in the program, but with more counters at each store to accommodate subscribers.

Tesco Lotus, however, assigned 20 stores with just one counter at each store.