About 14 billion baht was spent in the first week of the government’s Thais Help Thais Plus co-payment scheme which began on June 1, according to a government spokeswoman.
Deputy spokeswoman Lalida Persvivatana said on Sunday that 26.04 million people registered for the scheme and 21.85 million, 84%, had already benefitted from it.
As of 5pm on Saturday, those 21.85 million members had paid 5.89 billion baht for goods puchased under the 40-60% co-payment scheme, and the government paid the balance, 8.20 billion baht, she said.
Ms Lalida said 997,573 vendors had registered and were participating, of which 866,459 had also taken part in an earlier co-payment scheme and 131,114 were new participants. Another 3,613 vendors' applications were still being processed and 112,817 others had yet to accept the terms and conditions.
To date 925,033 shops had processed purchases under the scheme.
As of 11pm on Friday, 142,610 people had already used up their 1,000-baht subsidy for this month. The government plans the co-payment scheme to last four months. It covers spending on consumer products and commuter fares.
“The spending figures show that the Thais Help Thais Plus scheme really stimulates the grassroots economy by cutting people’s cost of living, increasing the incomes of retailers and circulating money in communities nationwide,” Ms Lalida said.
The co-payment scheme will also cover expenditure on food deliveries from June 15, she said.
