The committee is chaired by Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha and includes lawyers and police officers along with officials from the provincial Finance, Commerce, Labour office and Revenue Offices.
The committee’s brief is to “analyse, control and investigate” cases of loan sharking on the island.
It will also accept complaints are cheating in direct sales.
Sanchai Rattana Sa-nguan, a Revenue Department official, said that so far the committee has detected no cases of loan-sharking it can get its teeth into. He noted that the committee will take on cases only when a "a lot" of people complain about the same loan shark or salesman.
The establishment of the committee breaks a Catch-22 situation whereby no body would be formed unless complaints were received - but without the body there was no one to receive complaints.
The public can report cases by calling the hotline to the loan-sharking committee via the Revenue Office. The number is 076 354 841 (for cases in Phuket only).