Small businesses lose interest in digital wallet scheme, survey finds

In a recently conducted second survey, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) learned that small businesses have little or no interest in participating in the government’s digital wallet scheme.

Panita Shinawatra, OSMEP’s deputy director-general, said the survey gauged the interest of 2,704 SMEs nationwide in selling goods and services under the 500-billion baht digital scheme.

This survey was conducted from April 19 to 30, while the previous one was conducted in October last year.

Under the scheme, the government will hand out 10,000 baht via a digital wallet to some 50 million Thais aged 16 and above. Sellers of goods and services who accept the digital money will be required to spend their earnings from the scheme in other VAT-based shops instead of reimbursing it for cash.

Panita said the number of shops showing interest in the scheme had dropped to 75.2% from 82.9% in the first survey.

She said that most small businesses were concerned about the condition for reimbursing cash and feared that they could not compete against large retailers. Other SMEs said their businesses were not suited to the programme.

When asked how they planned to spend the digital money they earn, 77% said they would spend it on consumer goods, while 22.7% said they would spend it on expanding their businesses, Panita added.
In the first survey, 69.6% said they would spend the digital money they earn on consumer goods and 30.4% on investment.

The respondents also reduced their expectations of the digital wallet boosting their sales. This time they said they expected a boost of 21-40% compared to 50% in the previous survey.

She added that the second survey also found that most respondents were concerned about the stability of the app and the digital payment system.