The Treasury Department joins hands with Krungthai Bank to consolidate the debts of Treasury officials.

Bangkok, The Ministry of Finance has joined hands with Krungthai Bank to consolidate civil servants' debts, allowing repayments up to age 80, with a budget of 140 billion baht to support government agencies. Mr. Pichai Chunhavajira, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, presided over the signing ceremony of the cooperation in the 'Sustainable Debt Consolidation Loan Project for Government Officials under the Ministry of Finance', a collaboration between Krungthai Bank and 9 agencies under the Ministry of Finance to jointly solve debt problems, especially for vulnerable government officials whose salaries have been deducted to pay off debts until almost all of them are gone, leaving less than 30 percent left each month, which is not enough to live on. Therefore, they have to borrow more money to spend on daily expenses, resulting in debts in many places, scattered, and in a never-ending cycle of debt. Mr. Pichai said that when the pilot project to solve debt in cooperatives under the Ministry of Fi nance is successful, cooperation will be expanded to other ministries. The total debt of civil servants is 3 trillion baht and he wants to separate the risks according to the groups of civil servant debtors in the credit bureau because some are late on only some installments, while others are late on long payments. Currently, the Ministry of Finance has more than 36,000 civil servants and cooperative members who have problems with more than 1 creditor, resulting in insufficient income to pay off debts and insufficient salary to live on. Mr. Phayon Srivanich, President of Krungthai Bank, revealed that 'Sustainable Government Debt Consolidation Loan, an agency under the Ministry of Finance' focuses on consolidating all types of retail debt, including personal loans, credit cards, home loans, and car loans from both Krungthai Bank and other financial institutions, as follows: 1. Collateral-based loans, including home loans (with additional loan request) and home loans for cash (with additional loan request), f ixed low interest rate of 3.50% per year for the first 3 years, after which the fixed interest rate is 4.75% per year for the entire contract period, calculated from a loan amount of 1 million baht, with a maximum contract period of 40 years, with a monthly repayment of 4,700 baht, and exemption from collateral appraisal fees. 2. Unsecured loans, fixed interest rate of 6.75% per year for the entire contract period. The terms and conditions of the loan consideration are as determined by the bank. The project's highlight is the low interest rate, "fixed" throughout the contract period, not fluctuating in line with interest rates. Better long-term debt management and liquidity planning. Repayment is up to age 80, from the original age of 60. To increase liquidity for civil servants, Krung Thai Bank has collaborated with the Credit Bureau, which has developed a tool to warn if a debtor incurs additional debt, and has collaborated with the cooperative to share debt status information with the debtor's consent, in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act (iLock Bureau). Krungthai Bank has designed it to overcome the structural limitations of household debt problems as high as 90.8% of GDP, in line with the Prime Minister's policy, wanting cooperation from many sectors, such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ministry of Public Health, Royal Thai Police, Department of Cooperative Promotion, Comptroller General's Department, and Credit Bureau, including cooperatives of which civil servants are members, to push for tangible solutions to the problems. In the past 3 months, the bank has joined hands with the Department of Cooperative Promotion to travel to more than 10 provinces, with cooperation from more than 550 cooperatives. More than 10,000 civil servant customers have contacted to join the project, with an average debt of 1.64 million baht per person. Krungthai Bank has prepared a budget of 50 billion baht for this project to help 50,000 civil servants. Currently, it has prepared a budget to support cooperatives in the entire system of 140 billion baht. For this cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, it consists of the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury Department, the Comptroller General's Department, the Customs Department, the Excise Department, the Revenue Department, the State Enterprise Policy Committee Office, the Public Debt Management Office, the Fiscal Policy Office, and 7 affiliated cooperatives to help vulnerable civil servants to solve their debt problems sustainably. Source: Thai News Agency