The government's "shopping for the nation" campaign for Thai people to go shopping to boost the country's economy by offering a tax break has received a lukewarm response, according to the result of an opinion poll carried out by National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
45.36% of the respondents said they would not increase their purchases, and gave many different reasons.
The poll was conducted on Nov 20-21 on 1,250 people of various levels of education and occupations throughout the country to compile their opinions on the government's campaign to increase consumer spending.
As an incentive to buy more, individual taxpayers are allowed to deduct up to 15,000 baht of taxable income from the value of goods and services they purchase during the 23-day period from Nov 11 to Dec 3.
Asked whether they would go shopping to "help the nation", 45.36% said they would not do so, reasoning that they have already a list of what to buy for their monthly needs, and the tax deduction would be relatively insignificant. Moreover, they said, the shops which are participating in the campaign are too far away from their homes and they would rather buy things from local shops.
A slightly smaller number of respondents, 41.12%, said they would benefit from the campaign as they have to buy necessities for daily use anyway, and the campaign is a way to spur the country's economy.
13.52% of respondents were uncertain or had no comment.
Asked whether they think the Thai economy has improved compared to the year 2016, only 1.76% said it has improved considerably, while 24.96% thought the economy is now on an upward trend. Taking a more negative view, 19.36% said the Thai economy is not much better than before; 28.40% said it has not improved at all; 19.68% thought it is worse than last year; 4.32% said it's about the same, and 1.52% were uncertain or had no comment.