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The Finance Ministry gives the nod to six picofinance licences for applicants from Bangkok and five provinces.
The Finance Ministry has approved six picofinance licences from 107 applicants, reported the Fiscal Policy Office.
Krisada Chinavicharana, director-general of the FPO, said more than half of the applicants operate in the Northeast.
The six granted licences operate in Kamphaeng Phet, Yasothon, Bangkok, Phichit, Trang and Buri Ram provinces, he said.
Picofinance, a state measure meant to help lower-income earners access formal financial sources and stay away from loan sharks, will be officially launched tomorrow. The application period opened Dec 1.
Finance Ministry criteria requires picofinance operators to have minimum registered capital of 5 million baht and operations confined to a particular province. They are permitted to lend for general purposes and limited to loans of 50,000 baht per borrower at a maximum rate of 36% a year.
Mr Krisada had recently said the ministry expected to grant the first 12 picofinance licences yesterday.
In related news, he said those who signed up for the government’s subsidy and welfare scheme provided through the national e-payment system last year are also required to update their information this year. Updated registration for the scheme, which runs from April 3 to May 15, is available at three banks: Government Savings Bank, Krungthai Bank and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.
An informed source at the ministry said the assets of registrants is one criterion to determine eligibility for the scheme.
Initially, those who are qualified to obtain government subsidies and welfare payments must have no more than one rai of land for residence and 10 rai of land for agriculture purposes, and their savings are capped at 100,000 baht.
However, the criterion for assets has not been finalised.
In the previous round of registration, the government required applicants to be Thai nationals aged 18 or older and have an annual income of less than 100,000 baht. Some registrants with high-value assets exploited the loophole to obtain subsidies, so the ministry has tightened its qualifications.
Some 8.2 million people signed up for the scheme last year and 7.7 million qualified. About 1.3 million of the registrants have borrowed a combined 90 billion baht from loan sharks.