Thailand
Thailand: Restaurateurs eye B30bn in loan support petition
Restaurant operators yesterday submitted a petition to the government calling for loan support worth 30 billion baht with a 100% debt guarantee coverage from state-owned Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG).
Thai Restaurant Association president Taniwan Koonmongkon, who submitted a petition yesterday to the government via National Economic and Social Development Council secretary-general Danucha Pichayanan, said the loan scheme should be allocated from the existing 250-billion-baht soft loan programme of the Bank of Thailand.
Each operator should be entitled to receive up to 5 million baht, with financial institutions considering applicants’ qualifications based on their annual revenues in 2018 and 2019, she said.
According to Mrs Taniwan, 1,500 restaurants operate as companies and 100,000 are run by individual taxpayers.
The association also proposed a joint committee comprised of the public and private sectors be established to rehabilitate food businesses.
The group urged the government to utilise the TCG as a centre to assist restaurants in upgrading from personal businesses to corporate entities, as food businesses have a high potential to support the country’s economic recovery.
She said restaurants generate about 400 billion baht a year for the Thai economy and contribute about 20% to the tourism sector.
Ailing food businesses and restaurants also affect raw materials supplied from the farm sector, Mrs Taniwan said.
“The pandemic, which has lasted one year and six months so far, has had a huge impact on eateries. Some 50,000 restaurants are already out of business,” she said.
“If the government fails to offer financial aid in time, the association is afraid another 50,000 restaurants will be forced to throw in the towel in the third quarter.”
Mr Danucha said the group’s proposal will be raised at the next meeting of the Center for Economic Situation Administration.
He said the state planning unit agrees it is time to improve the regulations on borrowers’ qualifications in the Bank of Thailand’s 250-billion-baht soft loan scheme.
On March 23 this year, the cabinet approved financial relief measures worth a total of 350 billion baht to help the business sector recover from the impact of Covid-19 after the existing 500-billion-baht aid programme underperformed.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2138083/restaurateurs-eye-b30bn-in-loan-support-petition