Krungthai Bank (KTB) is not going to compensate those who failed to register for the second-phase co-payment scheme on Wednesday when DTAC's one-time password (OTP) system crashed.
The crash was a technical error and every registration system can have this kind of bottleneck, said KTB president and chief executive Payong Srivanich. Everyone had an equal chance to register, said Mr Payong.
KTB is a state-owned bank responsible for overseeing the Pao Tang and Tung Ngern apps used to disburse the subsidy scheme, among other functions.
A full 5 million people registered for the second phase within two hours after online registration opened at 6am on Wednesday.
The registration system was overwhelmed and the process of confirming registrants' identity via an OTP crashed for those using DTAC mobile service. Total Access Communication (DTAC) is the country's third largest mobile operator by subscribers.
Sending an SMS to registrants to confirm their identities via the Pao Tang app is discontinued for the next 1-2 days to prevent people from rushing to confirm their identities, which caused a bottleneck, said Mr Payong.
The crash of the Pao Tang app, used for identification and payment by first-phase registrants to confirm the extra 500-baht subsidy for the second phase of the scheme, is a separate issue from registration via the co-payment website, said Mr Payong.
The app is now fully functional, but the issue of excess capacity warrants caution, he said.
Under the co-payment scheme, the government pays for 50% of food, drink and general goods purchases for up to 150 baht per person per day, capped at 3,000 baht per person for a specified duration. The objective is to stimulate consumer spending in the final quarter after sentiment was gutted by the pandemic.
The first-phase scheme started on Oct 23 and ends on Dec 31, with 30 billion baht allocated.