More than 150,000 people with accumulated informal debts of almost 12 billion baht registered for the government's debt settlement programme, resulting in 18,509 people settling more than 771 million baht in total so far, according to the Interior Ministry.
The registration period lasted from Dec 1–Feb 29, it said.
Suttipong Juljarern, permanent secretary at the ministry, said 151,175 registered debtors owed a total of 11.732 billion baht to 125,302 creditors.
Bangkok saw the most debtor registrations, with 10,091 owing 1.065 billion baht to 9,047 creditors, and Mae Hong Son saw the lowest, with 406 owing 18.819 million baht to 316 creditors, he said. Data also shows that 28,725 debtors have entered negotiations with their creditors, with 18,509 of them already successfully renegotiating terms, resulting in a total reduction of their collective debts from 2.626 billion baht to 1.855 billion baht, he said.
The province with the largest number of debtors successful in their negotiations is Nakhon Sawan, with 518 people reducing their debts from a total of 287.587 million baht to 234.076 million baht, he said.
Mr Suttipong said the end of the registration marked the beginning of the government's work in settling debts for registered debtors, adding that it aims to have all debtors in the country enter talks with their creditors.
Prime Minister and Finance Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Thursday he was not yet satisfied with the programme's results, although he had not been informed about the latest result.
He also discussed with Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ways to boost registration numbers and find ways to deal with powerful creditors as well as facilitate debtor-creditor negotiations.
Meanwhile, Suan Dusit University yesterday published a poll result which shows participants are satisfied with the government's work related to informal debt settlement the most.