By The Nation
Published on January 19, 2010

Close to a million people owing just under Bt105 billion in total to local loansharks had registered for the government debt-relief scheme last month, a source at the Interior Ministry reported yesterday.

Bangkok had the most people registered with 67,362 debtors and Bt6.25 billion in total debt.

This was followed by Surin, which had 60,719 debtors who owed a total of Bt6.30 billion; followed by 47,923 debtors who owed some Bt5.35 billion in Nakhon Ratchasima; 36,607 debtors owing Bt3.84 billion in Si Sa Ket and 32,910 debtors owing Bt3.41 billion in Ubon Ratchathani.

Samut Songkram had the least with just 1,611 people owing Bt170.6 million in debt, followed by Ranong's 1,777 debtors owing Bt178.7 million, Trat's 1,822 debtors owing some Bt202.4 million, 2,545 people in Mae Hong Son who owed Bt273.8 million in debt, plus 2,557 people in Sing Buri who owe some Bt270.9 million.

Interior Ministry officials will contract provinces and districts from February 1-15 for details and set dates for debtor-creditor talks after receiving information on the debtors on February 1 from the Finance Ministry.

Negotiations were expected to complete buy-ups of these debts at a rate of about 25 per cent per month from February 16 to June 16.

Source: The Nation