Associate Prof. Sangsit Piriyarangsan, who is also chairman of the National Legislative Assembly's Committee on Finance, Banking and Financial Institutions, said data released by the central bank showed household debt last year surged to Bt213.44 billion while household income totaled Bt 116.59 billion.

In the second quarter, outstanding credit card loans stood at Bt169 billion. Consumer loans extended by commercial banks increased by 18 per cent and those provided by non-bank financial institutions by
15 per cent.

Given the data, consumer debt increased sharply, he said, adding that operators of credit card and consumer loan businesses were now attempting to collect debts by different means, more forcefully and intrusively, which violate personal rights.

Worse still, BoT had imposed a minimum monthly installment payment for credit card debts at 10 per cent instead of 5 per cent set earlier.

He suggested the Finance Ministry and BoT instruct financial institutions to be strict for the issuance of credit cards to prevent customers from having too many cards.

In addition, they should consider whether credit card loan rates, which stay at 28 per cent at present, are appropriate or not.

The law governing debt protection should be amended to ensure prevailing fairness for debtors.

He viewed the ministry and BoT are indifferent to problems facing debtors at present despite the fact that the number of the debtors is as high as 5-10 million persons throughout Thailand.