GSB opens low-interest loans for self-employed people hit by Covid-19 outbreak

By The Nation

 

Chatchai Payuhanaveechai

 

Freelance self-employed people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic can avail of ultra-low interest loans offered by Government Savings Bank by applying through the bank's website.

 

Soft loan applications are invited from self-employed people such as taxi drivers, tour guides and vendors whose incomes have taken a hit after the virus outbreak, Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, the bank's president, said on Sunday (March 29).

 

Anyone aged 20 and up could be eligible for a clean loan with interest rate at just 0.10 per cent a month and a grace period of six months. Each person can borrow as much as Bt10,000 and debt repayment period is two years. The monthly income of applicants should not be more than Bt30,000 and they must have a place of residence where the bank can contact them.

 

The GSB will also launch another loan package on April 1 for those who have lost their regular monthly income because of the outbreak.

 

Each person can borrow up to Bt50,000 with interest rate at 0.35 per cent a month and a three-year debt repayment period. Borrowers could use either an asset as collateral or an individual guarantor.

 

Borrowers aged 20 or up are eligible and they must have a residential address. They could apply for loans via www.gsb.or.th only, as no service is available at the bank counters.

 

The personal loan facilities are part of relief measures implemented by the government to support people impacted by the business shutdown.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30385028

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-03-30

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So more debt.  Sometimes these small loans can help a small business.  I recall the micro loans guy from Pakistan or Afghanistan got the Nobel prize a few years back for his concept of micro loans.  But Thailand structure has deeper issues than that is likely to solve

.35%/month.....hardly a bargain in 2020, but of course, never let a virus get in the way of making a profit!

The last thing people need now, is more debt.

What are people going to do with 10,000 baht and payable over 2 years? It’ll last them a day and they are going to suffer monthly with having to find Money to repay the debt for the next 2 years. Better not to do anything.

I think it's unscrupulous to be using their unemployment to make more debt for people and profit from it in this moment in time.  

Freelancers,wow,does that mean all the girls who hang outside the Nana hotel and around soi4,get it.