About 3,000 restaurants in Thailand have applied for loans over the past week, under a new scheme co-initiated by the Commerce Ministry and five state financial institutions, to help struggling businesses cope during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Loans of up to 879 million baht have been sought since June 7th, when the “Jub Koo Goo Ngern” program kicked off.
The Government Savings Bank received 2,520 loan requests, totalling 750 million baht, the SME D Bank received 146 loan requests, totalling 64 million baht, Krungthai Bank received 98 loan requests, totalling 43 million baht, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives received 49 loan requests, totalling 22 million baht and the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation received 188 loan requests.
President of the Thai Restaurants and Street Food Association Prapassorn Rangsirot says that this program can help restaurant owners a lot, especially when they are seeking liquidity while interest rates remain high.
At the same time, Provincial Commercial Affairs offices, outside of Bangkok, have set up temporary locations to help restaurant owners.
Restaurant owners have also requested food delivery services to extend the reduction of Gross Profit (GP), or the fees they have to pay, for another three months. The fee has already been reduced to 25% for this month.
Restaurant owners can request the loans until this Sunday. They can submit their request to the Provincial Commercial Affairs offices or to the five financial institutions. It will take 1-2 weeks to review each loan request. – ThaiPBS
