Local Shops Thrived While Khon La Khrueng Left 2B Baht Unused

Thailand’s year-end retail buzz has died down, and with it Khon La Khrueng Plus has closed the register. What looked like a sure-fire giveaway ended with billions of baht never leaving the state vault, even as the programme briefly strengthened local spending power and kept small shops busy.

Quick glance: what mattered

• 84.19 B baht pumped into the economy

• 0.2 % estimated lift to GDP growth in 2025

• 19.76 million registered users; 9.21 million burned through every satang

• Roughly 2 B baht in subsidies returned unused

• Nearly 1 million merchants signed on, including 89,799 food-delivery outlets

What the final tally reveals

After nine weeks of daily dinging QR codes, the Finance Ministry’s dashboard stopped at 23:00 on 31 December. The ledger shows 42.81 B baht came directly from consumers, matched by 41.38 B baht in government co-payment. Spending at bricks-and-mortar stores dwarfed app orders, 81.15 B baht versus 3.03 B baht. Yet more than half the account holders — 10.5 million people — left their full quotas untouched, an outcome officials admit was unexpected.

Why half the wallets stayed shut

Interviews with shoppers and shop-owners point to a cocktail of glitches and misgivings. Login failures, patchy internet in rural districts, and a notorious 15 November server crash frustrated many. First-time users wrestled with QR settings, while some merchants never activated the programme-specific EDC menus. Consumer watchdogs also flagged dual pricing and illicit cash-exchange offers, eroding trust. Finally, staggered entitlement levels — 2,400 baht for taxpayers, 2,000 baht for non-filers — left certain groups feeling short-changed and in no hurry to spend.

Ripple effect on Main Street

Still, cash registers in fresh-markets, mom-and-pop groceries and roadside kuay-tiaw stalls enjoyed brisker trade. The ministry credits the scheme for driving up production orders, freight bookings, and hiring during the year-end rush, especially outside Bangkok. Merchant counts topped 999,350, widening digital-payment adoption and nudging corner shops onto formal platforms such as PromptPay and food-delivery apps.

Economists debate what comes next

Macro analysts see the boost as real but fleeting. A Bangkok-based think-tank calculates each public baht generated only 0.40 baht of fresh consumption after leakages. Fiscal hawks warn the treasury could brush against the 70 % debt-to-GDP ceiling if populist outlays continue unchecked. Others note today’s macro backdrop — accelerating tourism and export recovery — differs markedly from the pandemic era when earlier Khon La Khrueng rounds were lifelines, not sweeteners.

How policy-makers might tweak future schemes

Officials studying the data hint at tighter targeting, perhaps directing subsidies solely to low-income registrants or tying use to essential goods such as fresh produce to avoid front-loading durable purchases. They are mulling minimum-spend triggers, stronger merchant audits, and automated real-time alerts to curb price gouging. Digital-literacy drives for vendors are also on the table to cut user error.

Takeaways for shoppers and small merchants

For households, the message is clear: delayed sign-ups and app confusion can turn free money into lost opportunity. For SMEs, onboarding early and keeping POS systems compliant proved the difference between an empty shop and a long queue. As new stimulus tools are drafted, both groups stand to gain from sharper tech skills, more transparent pricing, and closer eye on official deadlines.