National Savings Fund officials upbeat after
Administrators of the National Savings Fund (NSF) are confident they will be able to reach the target of 600,000 members by the end of this year, as more than 300,000 people registered with the fund in the first month after its introduction.
The number of registrations through the three state banks in the programme – the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), Krungthai Bank and the Government Savings Bank (GSB) – has been around 5,000 per day on average.
Somporn Chitphentom, secretary-general of the NSF, said yesterday that 300,471 people had registered with the NSF since it was first offered on August 20. This is more than 50 per cent of the target for this year, which has convinced the office that it will definitely meet its 2015 goal.
Looking further ahead, the target for the end of next year is to have 1.5 million members, with a membership of 3 million targeted for the end of 2018.
"The government’s public relations support has also provided us with more confidence that we
will meet this year’s target,
and the three state banks
have been very cooperative," he said.
The sum received to date from NSF members amounts to Bt281 million, broken down as follows: Bt189 million contributed through the BAAC, which has 194,000 NSF members; Bt62 million through the GSB, with 87,000 members; and Bt30 million via KTB, with 19,000 members.
At this point, around 75 per cent of the NSF members are farmers, 12 per cent are from other professions and 3 per cent are students.
The average deposit is Bt930, Somporn added.
The NSF measure was introduced with the aim of lowering the government burden of social and welfare payments resulting from an inevitable increase in medical bills due to an increasingly ageing society.
Thai citizens can register for the fund using their identification card and by making a minimum initial deposit of Bt50. The maximum deposit is Bt13,200 per year.
For NSF members aged 15-30, the government contribution will be 50 per cent of the member’s contribution, but not more than Bt600 per year.
For those aged 31-50, the government contribution will be 80 per cent, but not more than Bt960 per annum.
The government will provide 100-per-cent matching, up to a maximum of Bt1,200 a year, for those aged over 50.
