The network of government pawnshops is going to be expanded and a new system introduced to allow interest payments at any branch, not just where an item was pawned, under a 500-million baht programme announced on Tuesday.
Mana Kliangthong, director of the Office of Government Pawnshops (OGP), said the agency had arranged a 500-million-baht overdraft at the Government Savings Bank to build three more branches and improve existing shops and services.
The new branches will be opened in Lamphun, Surat Thani and Udon Thani provinces, each requiring 30 million baht investment. Currently, there are 35 OGP-run shops across the country, Post Today reported.
In the second half of this year, the number of people using pawnshops is projected to rise 6% over the first 6 months to 367,000 customers, he said.
The number of customers redeeming pawned goods had risen by 13.5%. However, it was not due to the economy getting better, but because of rising gold prices, he said. Customers chose to redeem gold items they had pawned and then sell them to gold shops.
People now also had other channels to get extra cash, such as personal loans and credit cards from banks. This drew customers away from pawnshops.
To attract customers, the OGP would revamp its branches, making its pawnshops look like commercial banks, the director said.
It also planned to overhaul the interest payment system to enable customers to make payments at all branches or at counter services, instead having to return to the actual shops where they had pawned their goods.