Cabinet mulls measures for SMEs today

They include the provision of SME support funding worth up to Bt7.3 billion.
The five proposed financial measures comprise the following:
Productivity improvement loans, which will be provided by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand. The loans, worth Bt20 billion in total, will be divided into two types – for the development of machinery and working processes – and the scheme will have a support budget of Bt1.8 billion. The project will run for two years.
A Bt24-billion credit-guarantee project, named the Portfolio Guarantee Scheme in the 4th Phase, will be run by the Thai Credit Guarantee Corp. The agency will pay a coverage ratio of not higher than 18 per cent of the average insurance burden to financial institution over the five-year period of the project. In support, the government will provide realistic compensation of up to Bt2.2 billion.
Another credit guarantee, the Portfolio Guarantee Scheme, will apply to new or start-up enterprises. Bt10 billion worth of guarantees will granted by the Thai Credit Guarantee Corp for SMEs that are not more than two years old.
The coverage ratio payment given to financial institutions will not be higher than 48 per cent of the insurance burden over the seven-year period of the project. The support budget will be Bt3.3 billion.
Loans for the development of labour skills will be granted to SMEs for use in their training activities. With an interest rate of only 0.1 per cent per annum, the loans will be worth about Bt42 billion in total and will have a four-year repayment period.
A lending project for supporting employment will allow commercial banks to grant lower-interest loans from the capital source of the Social Security Fund to SMEs that have been negatively affected by the increase in labour costs.
The five measures are expected to lead to Bt86 billion of additional lending to SMEs, with about 28,000 enterprises expected to benefit.
Meanwhile, Labour Ministry permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong said after a meeting of high-ranking officials, chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, that the PM had expressed concern over the impact on the business sector of the daily minimum wage increasing by 40 per cent to Bt300 in seven provinces from April 1.
He said that following a suggestion by the premier, the Finance Ministry – along with the Labour Ministry and Industry Ministry – had agreed to a tax measure to ease the burden on enterprises.