Registration for the Thai government’s 50:50 co-payment scheme, which aims to stimulate the weakening economy during the last quarter of the year through consumer spending, starts today.

Thai nationals, who are at least 18-years old, have ID cards and are not state welfare card holders, are eligible to apply to receive 3,000 baht taxpayer support, of up to 150 baht/day, until year end. About 10 million Thais are eligible.

Those interested can apply from 6am until 11pm by registering through the www.คนละครี่ง.com website with their names and ID card numbers, as well as the code numbers on the back of the cards, their birth dates and contact numbers. Their phones must have the “เป่าตัง (pao tang) application installed.

After registration, the applicants will receive a text message confirming their registration. Then they need the pao tang application to reconfirm their registration.  The funds will be wired into their pao tang account and they can start spending within 14 days at over 200,000 businesses which have, so far, joined the scheme. These include 115,824 food and drink shops, 42,382 Thong Fah or Blue Flag stores, 9,564 OTOP shops and other 68,878 general stores.

The Finance Ministry is confident that its computer system can comfortably handle 100,000 applications per second.