Thailand will inaugurate the third phase of a co-payment programme from July as part of the government’s relief measures to help those affected by the pandemic.
Finance Ministry spokesperson, Kulaya Tantitemit, revealed that more than 51,000 restaurants, shops, stores and vending stalls nationwide were confirmed to join the programme bringing the total number of business players to more than 1.25 million.
According to the spokesperson, under the scheme, the government will pay half of the price for eligible food and services purchases with a subsidy of up to 150 baht (about 4.8 U.S. dollars) per person per day, capped at 3,000 baht per person.
“Some 24.14 million people have so far applied to be recipients of the third-phase programme, which is expected to benefit up to 31 million people between July and December,” Mr Kulaya said.
The country rolled out the first phase of the programme from October to December in 2020, and the second phase between January and March 2021.
This comes as the government tried to cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic which has knocked the tourism-reliant economy to its weakest in more than two decades.
The Southeast Asian country has been battling a sharp surge in infections since April, its worst wave of the COVID-19 outbreak so far, with more than 80 per cent of its caseload having been reported during the past 10 weeks.
Earlier, the country reported 2,331 new cases raising the total tally to 204,595.
The death toll increased by 40 to 1,525.
Xinhua/NAN
