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Tourism Firms Lap Up GSB Loan Offer

19 Feb, 2021

Several Thai tourism operators have used their land as collateral for the Government Savings Bank's (GSB) loan programme.

Approved on Monday, the programme is designed to provide low-interest loans for tourism-related businesses and those designated as supply chains of the tourism sector.

Of the 10-billion-baht credit line for the loan programme, businesses requested a combined sum of 5 billion yesterday, the first day for applications, said Vitai Ratanakorn, president and chief executive of GSB.

This reflects considerable demand for loans among tourism business operators to beef up their financial liquidity, said Mr Vitai.

Land can be used as collateral to obtain loans and the GSB will not assess loan approval based on businesses' cash flow, as tourism businesses have bore the brunt of the pandemic crisis.

The GSB is scrutinising loan applications to see whether they comply with the bank's lending criteria, he said.

One of the main lending criteria is that land used as loan collateral must be identified as land assigned by Nor Sor 3 Kor title deeds, and must not be landlocked land or land used for soil excavation.

Mr Vitai said GSB is offering loans of up to 70% of the land appraisal value appraised by the government, higher than the 50% offered by repurchase businesses.

No instalment payment is required during the first 2-3 years of borrowing, and lenders can set aside a loan portion for interest payment to ease the interest burden shouldered by lenders, he said.

Loan terms are comprised of a three-year loan period with step-up interest rates of 0.1%, 0.99% and 5.99% per year for the first, second and third years, respectively.

Borrowers can seek to obtain these loans until June 30.

Individual borrowers are allowed to obtain a credit line of 1-10 million baht, while the credit line for corporate borrowers ranges from 1-50 million baht.

 

 

Bangkok Post

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