The government has teamed up with construction material and consumer product companies to offer special discounts to flood victims in the southern provinces.
Wiboonlasana Ruamraksa, permanent secretary for commerce, said the traders agreed to the discounts following talks with the Commerce Ministry. The reductions will help with the costs of renovations and repairs of homes ravaged by the floods.
The discount rates will be available after the floods subside, she said.
"The Commerce Ministry has been closely monitoring the flooding through 'Mini MoC' officials in the affected provinces, and found that although many roads have been flooded, heavy trucks can still run through them," she said. "More importantly, there are many distribution centres now operating in the South, so a shortage of consumer products is unlikely."
The Mini MoC (Ministry of Commerce) is the working mechanism created by the Commerce Ministry last year that divides areas of responsibility into seven spheres.
Through this mechanism, the ministry's inspector-general, deputy permanent secretary of commerce and deputy director-general of the Internal Trade Department will work closely with provincial governors to manage agricultural product prices, monitor price changes and the costs of living for local people, and to drive both border trade and the local economic strategy.
Commerce Ministry officials working in the provinces have also been ordered to inspect more consumer good and food prices at markets stringently, and report back every week.
Deputy Commerce Minister Sonthirat Sonthijirawong said the government has also been closely monitoring the prices of food and products in the affected areas and found that prices of some fresh vegetables and seafood were higher because of supply shortages.
The ministry pledged to supervise prices, particularly seafood, which is a key source of protein, to ensure fair pricing, he said.
The state-owned Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank) has launched two measures to relieve the bank's flood-affected customers.
The measures are a six-month grace period for the banks' flood-hit debtors and emergency loans to help rehabilitate business, SME Bank chairman Somchai Harnhirun said in a statement.
The bank's customers are entitled to seek up to 500,000 baht each through the emergency loans, which come with a five-year maximum term and a one-year grace period.
SME Bank will charge no more than the minimum lending rate.
SME Bank customers who operate businesses in the 12 southern provinces ravaged by the massive floods are eligible for the relief package.