Nonthaburi, The Minister of Commerce stated that he is preparing to open registration for over 1,604,000 small and related shops nationwide for the digital wallet project in early August to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2024. He emphasized that it will definitely not benefit large department stores.
Mr. Phumtham Vejjayachai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce, said that the Ministry of Commerce is currently preparing a plan for legal entities registered with the Department of Business Development, more than 910,000 stores, and the Department of Internal Trade at 146,000 Blue Flag stores, 5,000 Blue Flag restaurants, including mom-and-pop shops, street vendors, food shops, and flea markets that are supervised by local administrative organizations and the Ministry of Interior, and another 400,000 stores, including farmer groups, community enterprises, and cooperatives that are supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and another 93,000 stores, and wholesale and retail st
ores and convenience stores that are supervised by the Thai Retailers Association, through the Ministry of Commerce, 50,000 stores, which will open for registration to join the 10,000-baht digital wallet project from early August onwards.
However, this will result in the number of shops that will facilitate people participating in the digital wallet project nationwide reaching 1,604,000/places, which should be sufficient to provide services. The products participating in the project are diverse and mostly focus on consumer goods. However, there are 18 products that cannot participate in the project, or the Negative List, including government lottery tickets, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, cannabis, kratom, kratom plants, cannabis and kratom products, gift cards, cash cards, gold, diamonds, gems, jewelry, fuel, natural gas, electrical appliances, electronic devices, and communication devices. However, the Ministry of Commerce can consider adjusting the list of Negative List products if it is deemed ne
cessary, especially certain products that are necessary for daily use or for creating a career.
In addition, many parties believe that registering shops will benefit large entrepreneurs, which is probably not true because this project will focus on small shops, such as individual shops, Blue Flag shops, village fund shops, community enterprises, small shops, local retail shops and grocery stores, cooperative shops, community product manufacturers, OTOP, food and beverage shops, grocery stores, all of which are eligible, including small convenience stores, but not including department stores, large retail and wholesale stores at the national and local levels, etc.
Source: Thai News Agency
