The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has drawn up new rules for street vendors across the capital.

City Hall had said earlier that only “poor Thais” would be allowed to be street vendors, and they would be barred from employing migrants, among many other requirements.

To receive permission to work as a vendor for one year, an applicant must be a Thai citizen who meets at least one of three requirements: they hold a state welfare card, they are buying a house under the Baan Mankong scheme, and/or they receive welfare aid.

In the second year, vendors must show that their annual income does not exceed 300,000 baht, as shown by their income tax filings.

Those who have never filed taxes — expected to be the vast majority of vendors — before will be granted a one-year grace period before they have to begin doing so.

Vendors earning more than 300,000-baht per year will lose the right to run a stall on the streets. 

The BMA will also review the suitability of vending areas every one or two years, taking into account their impact on the street layout and traffic flow, to ensure pedestrians have enough space to walk safely.

Specific guidelines have been put in place to ensure that stalls do not obstruct public areas such as bus stops, footbridges, or entrances to public facilities.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt had previously said BMA’s goal is to reduce the number of vendors on the streets by moving them to designated areas, similar to Singapore’s approach to hawker centres.

Mr Chadchart said that over the past two years, around 10,000 vendors had been removed from Bangkok’s streets, and efforts to establish hawker centres are ongoing.