10.67bn baht generated by Chim Shop Chai

[webfact]

10.67bn baht generated by Chim Shop Chai

 

   

BANGKOK (NNT) - The government’s Chim Shop Chai - Eat Pay Spend economic stimulus has, as of yesterday generated 10.667 billion baht cash.

 

In Yala province, transactions made via the g-Wallet app have risen to 225 million baht so far, making the province 10th highest in spending in this campaign.

 

Yala Provincial Finance Office has revealed figures from the Chim Shop Chai campaign to promote domestic tourism, that show the total value of transactions made through the g-Wallet application in Yala has reached 225,947,250.45 baht. This total figure can be divided into g-Wallet 1 spending of 190,888,883.95 baht, which is the government granted allowance on eligible purchases, and g-Wallet 2 spending or clients’ own spending of 35,058,366.50 baht.

 

Mr Charnkrit Dechawitak, an assistant to a Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, said today that follow-ups on this campaign in many areas show that individual businesses and community enterprises have seen at least a 30 percent sales growth resulting from this campaign, even rising to 100 percent in some areas, proving that the cash injection scheme does indeed benefit the grassroots economy, creating funds in circulation and prolonging economic stimulation.

 

He said that the campaign aims to familiarize the general public with cashless payments, in order to prepare for digital trading, encouraging families to spend time together travelling, and improving wealth distribution to individual businesses and community enterprises. The outcomes from this campaign will be even more obvious in the final two months of this year, as the tourism industry enters its peak season.

 

Members of the general public who have signed up to the campaign, either in Phase 1 or Phase 2, are encouraged to continue spending using the g-Wallet 2 balance until 31st December this year.

 

The Comptroller General’s Department Deputy Director General, Wirawan Payanoi said today that 13 million persons signed up to the campaign in Phases 1 and 2. These clients are considered capable of pushing the economy forward through their tourism activities. She has invited all clients to top up their g-Wallet 2 balance after using up the g-Wallet 1 balance given by the government to receive 15% cashback reward from their first 30,000 baht spending, with the cashback capped at 4,500 baht per person, and 20% cashback reward from spending exceeding 30,000 baht to 50,000 baht, with a cap of 4,000 baht cashback per person. These benefits are only available until the end of year.

 

She said new campaigns will be introduced soon by Krungthai Bank and the Tourism Authority of Thailand with deep discounts for tourism activities in the remainder of this year.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2019-11-06

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[Somtamnication]

Money would have been spent anyway, but ok, good job?

[Chang_paarp]

So the government has injected a lot of money into the economy whilst resisting the temptation to resort to populist policies.

[ezzra]

Amazing yet again how government officials, and to just to prove a point, have come up so quickly with these figures on public spending and consumptions that usually takes many months to collects, scrutinises, check and recheck and than publish by the end of a financial year, and here it was done in a matter of couple of months and all that in order to glorify some simple domestic consumptions...

[mikebell]

These figures would have been spent anyway; Thais have to eat.

[upena]

Most spent at neighboring provinces Big C or Lotus

[wgdanson]

Love it when they give the figures of millions down to the satang !   LOL

[ChrisY1]

It wasn't money generated...it was taxpayer money!

But of course, much better than having the pollies nik it!

[Orton Rd]

why not just give the money direct to Tesco and Big C and save people the trouble of shopping there and handing it over?

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The government’s Chim Shop Chai - Eat Pay Spend economic stimulus has, as of yesterday generated 10.667 billion baht cash.

Yet the government's social security is running out of funds?

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378056?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=internal_referral

• the social security fund would dry up within fifteen years, Labour Minister Chatumongol Sonakul said the fund remained steady citing an actuarial report complied by the Social Security Office (SSO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2015. 
• To ensure stability, we must evaluate the long-term economic situation for a sustainable policy

Not only is the CSC NOT a sustainable program, it actually promotes social inequality and encourages political loyalty through its arbitrary and capricious application. The social security program is legally binding without reference to any political loyalty. 

[hotchilli]

1 hour ago, wgdanson said:

Love it when they give the figures of millions down to the satang !   LOL

Simply amazing isn't it that they can do that with such speed too.

[mok199]

Numbers from the same Nation that gave us the ''honest taxi driver '' tall tales...

[lordblackader]

It didn't generate anything - it was a redistribution of tax money with most of the funds ending up in the hands of multi-national Thai companies. 

[30la]

It would be interesting to know who has benefited from this senseless campaign!
People are forced to benefit from these 1,000 Baht to spend money (phone) and travel to another province!

[zydeco]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The government’s Chim Shop Chai - Eat Pay Spend economic stimulus has, as of yesterday generated 10.667 billion baht cash.

Entirely out of thin air.

[jonclark]

I think the biggest white elephant in the room through is this highly dubious link that spending is counted as tourism. When i (and the millions of others in Thailand) do a weekly shop in one of the big supermarket chains, that is not tourism. 

 

This is just a cash handout to boost consumption. It is straight out of the PTP / TRT / Shinawatra playbook, remember the tax rebate scheme for cars a few years ago. Exactly the same principle - buy something big and get cash back. A short term fix to give the appearance that the economy is fine. 

[BobbyL]

I think the source of the article tells you all you need to know. 

 

This 10bn hasn't been generated at all. It has been artificially created.  

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

3 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Yet the government's social security is running out of funds?

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378056?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=internal_referral

• the social security fund would dry up within fifteen years, Labour Minister Chatumongol Sonakul said the fund remained steady citing an actuarial report complied by the Social Security Office (SSO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2015. 
• To ensure stability, we must evaluate the long-term economic situation for a sustainable policy

Not only is the CSC NOT a sustainable program, it actually promotes social inequality and encourages political loyalty through its arbitrary and capricious application. The social security program is legally binding without reference to any political loyalty. 

The junta borrowed B 80 bn from SS when they coud not ŕaise funds. I wonder if they ever repaid this.

[DrTuner]

Generated cash? Did they open a new printing press?

[Scot123]

I wonder how much was stolen? 30‰~40%? What a waste. So instead of going to their nearest supermarket or maybe even restaurant to spend their free 1,000baht they had to goto the next province and spend 500baht to get there and back, wasting time and risking life and limb. I wonder how many accidents and deaths occurred on these shopping trips? 

[Scot123]

On 11/6/2019 at 5:06 AM, jonclark said:

I think the biggest white elephant in the room through is this highly dubious link that spending is counted as tourism. When i (and the millions of others in Thailand) do a weekly shop in one of the big supermarket chains, that is not tourism. 

 

This is just a cash handout to boost consumption. It is straight out of the PTP / TRT / Shinawatra playbook, remember the tax rebate scheme for cars a few years ago. Exactly the same principle - buy something big and get cash back. A short term fix to give the appearance that the economy is fine. 

I think that had more to do with the factories that got flooded which the factory's were very angry about getting a payback from the government not to leave. I think it was a very clever move which actually also benifited working class as well with many getting their first car. 

[rickudon]

So for every 5 baht the government GAVE to people to promote this campaign an extra 1 baht of expenditure was generated. What a waste of government money. Also, the only people who benefited were the relatively well off to start with. 

 

It would have been much fairer and beneficial to have spent the money on infrastructure improvements or just given it to the poorer people under one of the welfare programs. Personally i think better to have used it to raise the level of the pitiful state pension. Who can survive on 600 baht a month?