Thai Finance Ministry Flood Disaster Relief Measures

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Disaster Measures

By Wichit Chaitron

Nalin Viboonchart

The Nation

Finance Ministry The disaster relief measures announced by Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij:

- Provincial governors could ask for an emergency fund from the Comptroller General's Department. The comptroller general could approve Bt200 million emergency funds. The permanent secretary for finance can approve Bt500 million, and the Finance Minister can approve more than Bt500 million.

To speed up fund disbursement, government procurement regulations have been waived. Governors have the authority to assign individuals or a group of persons to proceed with the procurement.

- The Finance Ministry has cut rent for those who have leased lands and houses from the Treasury Department.

No rents will be collected for one year from tenants whose homes have been partially damaged.

Tenants whose homes have been completed damaged need not pay the rent for two years.

Those who lease land for farming will be exempted from paying rent for one year.

Those who could not run their business for three days are exempted a month's rent.

Those who have not been able to pay the due rent will not be subject to penalty.

- Stateowned banks, including Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and Government Savings Bank will provide soft loans to their customers and other people.

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives

The BAAC has forgiven debts to two farmers who died in Nakhon Ratchasima and Lop Buri provinces. The BAAC reported that about 200,000 of its customers have been hit by the flood. While the GSB reported 10,000 of its borrowers were hit, 226 customers of SME Bank and five borrowers of Exim Bank were also reported to have been affected.

In a related matter, Advanced Info Service has joined hands with Channel 3 news to donate Bt1 million to the affected people. In addition subscribers have been encouraged to send SMS by texting any words and send to 4567899 to donate Bt10 per message to the affected people.

Total Access Communication has joined with CAT Telecom and Channel 3 news to invite its customers to donate to help flood affected people. They can type the message "namjaithai" and send to 4567899 to donate Bt10 per message.

DTAC has also added to the the validity period of 30 days for prepaid customers in the affected areas totalling 1.3 million subscribers and extended the payment period for the postpaid customers.

Commercial bank

Kasikornbank has announced financial packages for customers who have been hit by the flash floods.

The packages include a reduction in the monthly instalment for housing to a maximum of 40 per cent, special loans for restoration, waiving creditcard charge for delay in payment. In addition, the bank will also extend the payment period of the rehabilitation loan for three years.

Krisada Lamsam, senior executive vice president of the bank, said yesterday that SMEs who were affected by the flood waters will have longer instalment terms, without payment of the principal amount for three months, and be able to extend for another three months, depending on the flood situation.

The bank has also extended the terms of the "Trust Receive" or promissory notes for three months without any export document guarantee.

Information Communications and Technology Ministry

The ICT Ministry has already set up a war room to coordinate with all state agencies in managing flood information and information about the affected people. People can inform or ask for help by calling 1111 and 021416588 or send an SMS to 4567891. At the same time, TOT and CAT Telecom are repairing the communications system in the disasterhit areas to restore normalcy as soon as possible.

The Federation of Thai Industries

Chairman Payungsak Chartsuthipol said the FTI was discussing with provincial FTI branches and important industrial sectors to help companies affected by the floods, by repairing damaged machinery. It is also evaluating the total damage suffered by the industrial sector from the nationwide flood situation.

-- The Nation 2010-10-22

[asiawatcher]

This all sounds like steps in the right direction and a lot of sensible solution here. Well done.