Emergency Decree on the Provision of Financial Assistance for Entrepreneurs Affected by COVID-19 Pandemic, B.E. 2563 (2020)

The grounds for the promulgation of this Emergency Decree are as follows. Whereas COVID-19 pandemic has a widespread impact and is likely to aggravate, it is necessary to have measures in place to provide additional assistance to entrepreneurs which are a business sector that drives the economy of the country and which constitute an important source of employment in the economic system, whereby additional credit is granted in order to increase the liquidity, and debt repayment is postponed in order to be aligned with the ability to repay debts of the entrepreneurs which is expected to decrease drastically as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Such measures must be carried out urgently in order to prevent the business sector from facing a state of liquidity shortage or defaults which may affect the financial status and the performance of duties relating to credit of financial institutions, which may then have an impact on the stability of the economic system of the country, resulting in an exacerbation of the problem and rendering it difficult to be solved later. This constitutes an emergency of unavoidable and urgent necessity for the provision of financial assistance to entrepreneurs affected by COVID-19 pandemic for the purpose of maintaining the economic security of the country. It is therefore necessary to enact this Emergency Decree.