Over 22,000 debtors register for government help on first day of registration
More than 22,000 people registered for government debt relief on the first day of registration on Friday, Interior Ministry spokesperson Traisuree Taisaranakul said.
The registration is part of the government's efforts to tackle the issue of illegal lending at hefty interest rates. Many debtors who had failed to repay their debts were reportedly threatened or assaulted by loan sharks.
A total of 22,090 registered as debtors seeking help from the Interior Ministry on Friday when the nationwide registration opened. The registrants came from all 77 provinces of the country, according to Traisuree.
She said that most of the registrations – 21,001 – were made online, through the Department of Provincial Administration’s website (https://debt.dopa.go.th). The remaining 1,089 registrations were made in person at district offices.
On the first day, the registrations involved a total of 11,539 creditors with combined debt totalling 935.31 million baht, the spokesperson said.
Bangkok saw the most registrations — 1,529 debtors — on Friday, involving 879 creditors and totalling 78.48 million baht, followed by Songkhla (959 debtors, 507 creditors, and 55.36 million baht in debt), Nakhon Si Thammarat (910/557/27.64 million baht), Nakhon Ratchasima (822/351/23.53 million baht), and Samut Prakan (572/293/23.70 million baht).
Traisuree said on Friday that Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was closely following the ongoing work on the matter, as the Interior Ministry had been assigned by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to lead the government’s efforts in tackling the issue of massive debts stemming from illegal lending.
The Interior Ministry has offered to exercise the existing administrative mechanism and legal authority to mediate between debtors and creditors involved in illegal lending. Any cases that are beyond the ministry’s authority will be referred to relevant state agencies.
