After a meeting on Tuesday, the Thai cabinet has decided to cut the spending budget for the “Ying Chai Ying Dai” (the more you spend, the more you get) scheme. The e-voucher cashback scheme previously had a budget of 28 billion baht which has been reduced to 9.8 billion baht due to the low number of participants. Ying Chai Ying Dai offers cashback e-vouchers for domestic purchases from participating shops through the Krungthai Bank Pao Tang app. Participants also receive vouchers of an amount of 10-15% of spending. Cabinet further approved a raise to the cashback cap amount. The amount, which was previously capped at 5,000 baht daily and has been increased to 10,000 baht daily.
Registration for the scheme opened on 21 June 2021, with registrants being able to utilize the scheme between 1 July and 30 November 2021. As of 14 July 2021, only 453,864 people had registered, far fewer than the government’s expected amount. Based on these figures, the government anticipates participation of around 4 million people by the end of the scheme.
The decision to reduce the scheme aligns with the latest lockdown measures in the 13 high-risk provinces which have seen the closure of department stores and shopping malls.
On the other hand, the cabinet increased the budget to support relief packages for people and businesses who have been affected by the recent lockdown measures. The budget was raised from 2.51 billion baht to 13.5 billion baht, in an effort to assist those in the provinces under the harshest lockdown conditions in the high-risk or dark red zones.