Phase 5 of the co-payment scheme, which opened for the first day of registration on Friday, saw an overwhelming response from the public, said Pornchai Thiraveja, director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office.
People can register for this phase of the "Khon La Khrueng" co-payment scheme by using Krungthai Bank's Pao Tang app which saw registration of 26,000 persons per second during the morning which exceeded the system capacity and caused the system to temporarily crash.
The registration of the scheme in the fourth phase saw 16,000 registrations per second.
The fifth phase of the scheme limits the number of registrants to 26.50 million. Their registration has to be confirmed first before they will be entitled to the subsidy.
The registration will run until it reaches 26.50 million eligible recipients.
Phase 5 of the scheme runs from Sep 1 to Oct 31, aiming to boost spending and alleviate people hardship from the higher living cost amid high inflation.
The subsidies under the fifth phase of the co-payment scheme will be lowered to 800 baht per person, compared to 1,200 baht in the previous phase.
The co-payment subsidy scheme offers to pay 50% of food, drink and general goods purchases for participants, with the total subsidy limited to 150 baht per person per day.
Successful recipients in the fifth phase will have until 10.59pm on Sep 14 as the last day they can activate their spending. If they fail to do so on time, their eligibility to obtain the subsidy will be invalidated.
A total of 188,775 shops were participating in all the phases of scheme as of Aug 17.
