The government will introduce a debt moratorium for farmers in the fourth quarter of this year, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday.
The government will introduce a debt moratorium for farmers in the fourth quarter of this year, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday.
The moratorium would cover both debt principal and interest, said Mr Srettha, adding that the cabinet would discuss it on Wednesday.
At the same time, he said, the government would promote knowledge sharing and technology use so that farmers could cut costs and increase their income.
Precision agriculture and the use of organic fertilisers in place of chemical products are among the practices farmers would be encouraged to adopt.
Mr Srettha, who is also the finance minister, was responding to a question raised in parliament on Monday night about the new government’s plans to help farmers deal with debts.
A debt moratorium was among the urgent economic stimulus measures that Mr Srettha announced when he introduced the government policy statement in parliament on Monday.
He promised that the moratorium would not affect the government’s compliance with fiscal discipline, but did not elaborate.
A source at the Finance Ministry said earlier that the debt moratorium was planned to run for three years for small-scale farmers with loan amounts not exceeding 1 million baht each.
Mr Srettha also said the government would soon outline actions to tackle illegal imports of pork, which have become a nationwide problem.