The Cabinet approved the Finance Ministry’s proposal today to roll out about 114 billion baht in soft loans and credit guarantees, to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as members of the public, to weather the current economic crisis.
Mr. Lavaron Sangsnit, Director of the Fiscal Policy Office and spokesman for the Finance Ministry, said the Ministry realizes that there are still many SMEs who do not have access to sources of financing, despite the fact that the Government has launched several stimulus packages to help businesses and industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Finance Ministry decided on a new stimulus package to assist SMEs, which are yet to receive help from the government, namely general SMEs, SMEs in the tourism business, smaller SMEs and the general public.
For general SMEs, about 20 billion baht will be set aside by the Government Savings Bank (GSB), to be lent to financial institutions, which will provide soft loans to general SMEs. Each SME will be granted a loan up to a maximum of 20 million baht, with 2% interest rate for two years.
About 57 billion baht in Guarantee Scheme Phase 8 (PGS8) soft loan plus will be extended to the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation, to be used to guarantee the credit of SMEs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but are yet to receive any funding from the state. The guarantee period is eight years.
About 10 billion baht for the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation will be used to guarantee loans provided by financial institutions to general SMEs. The guarantee period is 10 years.
The Government Savings Bank will set aside five billion baht in soft loans to be extended to tourism related SMEs, up to a maximum of 500,000 baht each. The maturity period of the loans is five years and the interest rate charged will be 3.99%.
9.6 billion baht in extra cash credits will be set aside, by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand, to be extended to SMEs in the tourism and other sectors. Each will be granted a maximum of three million baht in cash credit, with a 3% interest rate for the first two years. The maturity period is five years.
Ten billion baht will be set aside by the GSB to be extended to SMEs, which are categorized as small, and members of the public, at 50,000 baht each, repayable in three years, at 0.35% interest per month.
There will also be 2.5 billion baht for micro entrepreneurs, with the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation acting as the guarantor for ten years.
