Government Savings Bank announces automatic debt suspension for 3 months, allowing principal payments to be suspended without interest, to help debtors affected by floods, more than 110,000 accounts, for the period of October-December 2024.
As assigned by Prime Minister Paethongtarn Shinawatra to government agencies to urgently provide assistance to people in flood-affected areas, according to the announcement of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Ministry of Finance has assigned the Government Savings Bank to issue relief measures by automatically suspending debts – suspending principal payments and waiving interest for 3 months from October to December 2024 to alleviate the hardship and ease the burden of over 110,000 Government Savings Bank debtors in the affected areas, with an outstanding principal of over 43 billion baht.
Automatic Debt Suspension Measure – Suspension of principal and interest payments for a period of 3 months to suspend debt payments for SME loans with a credi
t line not exceeding 10 million baht and all types of retail loans, including career development loans and welfare loans (except loans under government policies or Public Service Account – PSA). Debtors who are eligible to enter the measure must have a domicile, address or place of employment in the disaster-stricken area as announced by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation on September 26, 2024.
The bank will send an SMS or letter to inform the debtor of the automatic debt suspension, which will be effective from the October – December 2024 installments. After that, the debtor must return to normal debt repayment from the January 2025 installment onwards. In the case that the automatic debt suspension is not desired, the debt can be repaid as usual. For regular debtors who repay debts within the 3-month period of the measure, the bank will use it to cut the principal. As for those who have previously participated in the debt suspension measure, reducing the interest by half, they will also b
e automatically considered for this measure.
For those who need to borrow money to alleviate their suffering from disasters, they can apply for an emergency loan with a relaxed approval criteria, allowing a maximum loan of 10,000 baht per person, no collateral or guarantor required, with a fixed interest rate of 0% for the first 3 months. After that, the interest rate from the 4th month onwards is 0.60%. Or, they may apply for a higher loan amount of no more than 50,000 baht per person with collateral, with an interest rate of 0% per month for the first 3 months as well, including the housing loan measure for those who need to repair or restore damaged homes.
The bank offers a loan of up to 100% of the appraised value, with a special interest rate averaging 3.233% per year for the first 3 years. Interested parties can study more details at www.gsb.or.th or at the GSB Contact Center, call 1115, and apply for a loan starting today at any Government Savings Bank branch within 30 days from the date the Departme
nt of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation announces a disaster area.
Source: Thai News Agency