Commerce ministry helms last discount scheme

The government through the Commerce Ministry looks set to organise the final discount scheme of the year covering more than 13,000 product items nationwide in November, a move to help lower costs of living for the people.

According to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, the seventh campaign in which the ministry has partnered with modern trade, local department stores and suppliers will offer discounts as high as 70%.

He estimates the final discount campaign to help reduce about 500 million baht worth of cost of living on top of about 1.3 billion baht launched through the previous six campaigns since April.

"The new discount campaign will run from Nov 1-30 and we expect it will help reduce expenditure for people worth around 500 million baht and stimulate domestic spending," said Mr Jurin.

Natsamon Vongkittipat, senior deputy managing director of Corporate Business Development of The Mall group, said the government's economic and consumption stimulus package in the final quarter of the year will boost domestic spending and the company's sales.

"Our sales revenue is being hard hit because of the Covid-19 impact. We expect our sales to drop by 20% this year from the previous target of 60 billion baht."

In a related development, deputy commerce minister Weerasak Wangsuphakijkosol said after presiding over the exhibition of mobile restaurants for 'Food Truck Mart' at the Commerce Ministry that food trucks are a new business model that became more popular amid the new normal trend and Covid-19 outbreak.

There are more than 2,500 food truck ventures nationwide with an economic value of more than 2.6 billion baht per year.

"Food truck business saw an outstanding growth rate, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic. The business recorded a 22% growth rate over the same period last year," he said.