Yingluck Hits Back At Charges Of Bankruptcy Resulting From Rice Scheme

[webfact]

PM hits back at charges of bankruptcy resulting from rice scheme

BANGKOK, Oct 16 – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra reasserted today that her government’s financial spending for the rice pledging scheme is strictly disciplined under the Bt400 billion budget earlier approved by the cabinet.

Referring to a Facebook comment page by former finance minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala who said the government’s controversial rice scheme and other populist policies could have an extremely negative impact on Thailand’s economy and will possibly plunge the country into a Greek-like financial crisis.

The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai’s criticism on the country’s huge public debt from the government’s policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice.

Meanwhile, Somsak Wongwatanasarn, deputy director of the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO), inspected the cargo terminal at Don Mueang airport today to see if it is suitable for stocking rice from the pledging scheme in the 2012/2013 harvest.

He said an area covering 31,475 square metres can be converted as a temporary warehouse for one million sacks, or 100,000 tonnes, of rice, adding that the building is capable of taking five tonnes of rice per square metre while humidity is not a concern since the floor is elevated.

The building needs some repairs which will cost less than Bt10 million, he said.

“About 500 trucks will move in and out of the warehouse all day. We need to know if such an activity will affect traffic and service of the airport premises,” he said.

Mr Somsak said the final decision on using Don Mueang will be made after a thorough discussion among the commerce, interior and transport ministries, adding that a study on using hangars at airports supervised by the Royal Thai Air Force in Lopburi, Nakhon Ratchasima, Udon Thani and Ubon Ratchathani is needed before a decision is made. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-10-16

[cloudhopper]

"The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai’s criticism on the country’s huge public debt from the government’s policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice."

Pure mathematical genius! The exact figures need to be kept secret though for reasons of grave national security....

[rubl]

The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai's criticism on the country's huge public debt from the government's policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice.

Two things here. for one it seems unlikely the amount recovered will be close to the amount spent. Secondly this statement of the PM is ignoring the fact that most of the budget goes to millers/middleman and not to farmers and an (yet unknown) amount is simply disappearing

Of course this government with all it's openness will really soon now report details on how the THB 400 billion is being spent, and what amount are recovered by G2G deals and releasing to exporters, local market. Real soon now

[Ricardo]

The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai's criticism on the country's huge public debt from the government's policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice.

Two things here. for one it seems unlikely the amount recovered will be close to the amount spent. Secondly this statement of the PM is ignoring the fact that most of the budget goes to millers/middleman and not to farmers and an (yet unknown) amount is simply disappearing

Of course this government with all it's openness will really soon now report details on how the THB 400 billion is being spent, and what amount are recovered by G2G deals and releasing to exporters, local market. Real soon now

Both good points.

Also wasn't the budget of B405-billion for next year's subsidies/losses-on-sale ? I thought that the current year's budget was a mere B280-billion ? Is it just me, or is PM-Yingluck confusing the two ?

And the "temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice" rather depends on whether the rice is sold, of which there are conflicting reports, does one believe the alleged government-buyers overseas or the Thai government officials when they speak about contracts for delivery by the end of next year ?

One would not normally expect payment to be received until after actual delivery.

[MunterHunter]

He said an area covering 31,475 square metres can be converted as a temporary warehouse for one million sacks, or 100,000 tonnes, of rice, adding that the building is capable of taking five tonnes of rice per square metre while humidity is not a concern since the floor is elevated.

Cos its only humid on the floor, right?

[asiawatcher]

And Yingluck has more experience in finance than the former finance minister to make such a denial?

[siampolee]

These statements made by Yingluck are from an Alice in Wonderland scenario. If her brains were dynamite she couldn't blow her nose.

[Sharp]

"The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai’s criticism on the country’s huge public debt from the government’s policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice."

Pure mathematical genius! The exact figures need to be kept secret though for reasons of grave national security....

My thoughts exactly !!!!!!

How the hell is the math gonna work ....

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[Crushdepth]

He said an area covering 31,475 square metres can be converted as a temporary warehouse for one million sacks, or 100,000 tonnes, of rice, adding that the building is capable of taking five tonnes of rice per square metre while humidity is not a concern since the floor is elevated.

Cos its only humid on the floor, right?

It's only humid when it floods.

[Thai at Heart]

He said an area covering 31,475 square metres can be converted as a temporary warehouse for one million sacks, or 100,000 tonnes, of rice, adding that the building is capable of taking five tonnes of rice per square metre while humidity is not a concern since the floor is elevated.

Cos its only humid on the floor, right?

Well, if the floor isn't water sealed properly, moisture will migrate into the rice from the concete, which having attempted to store product in non ideal warehouses before will mean that the bottom sack of every stack of rice will probably go mouldy. Considering the way they are claiming that so many million tonnes of product has already been sold, it isn't particularly heartening to hear that they are looking at airforce hangars for 100mt here and there.

100k mt in crops of 10s of millions is absolutely piffling. Beyond that, these buildings are going to be full of oil residue and god knows what other types of contaminants that have built up through years and years of engineering maintenance work, which is inevitably going to contaminate the product. There will be oil sumps, and oil drains all over the place, and i just hope they remember to put some grills on the drains to stop rats migrating up the drains into the facility.

When you drive past a rice warehouse, it is easy to think, it's just a big building with a roof on, but in reality there has been quite a lot of accumulated experience involved in building these things to give the product the best chance of being stored. Humidity fluctuates wildly in Thailand because of rains and the such. Right now the concrete is full of moisture because it has just been hosing it down with rain. Well, if they go and cover the floor with a product that is of a relatively lower moisture, it will inevitably migrate into the rice over the next few months as the humidity drops as the rain stops. They would be better to wait a month or two to let the building dry out completely.

I would reckon that putting in an aircraft hangar will lead to about 25% mould, pest losses, and contamination.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Thai at Heart

[Pimay1]

These statements made by Yingluck are from an Alice in Wonderland scenario. If her brains were dynamite she couldn't blow her nose.

Post of the month or maybe the year .

[jaltsc]

She's correct. She looked at her bank account and she hasn't lost a baht as a result of the rice scheme. No way is she bankrupt

[AleG]

"The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai’s criticism on the country’s huge public debt from the government’s policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice."

Pure mathematical genius! The exact figures need to be kept secret though for reasons of grave national security....

Oy!, you are so negative. You see, they have this master plan, when the time is right they will start dumping the enormous mountain of old stockpiled rice into the market to rise the price of the commodity, they'll make a killing!

[fareastguy]

Rice pledging scheme, flood prevention budget, quarterly money laundering practices, I think just as Yingluk is getting comfortable with her position she will be brought crashing down by all the "fat cats" surrounding her !

Her party friends are trashing the house on a free for all binge which will only end in tears !

[asiawatcher]

Good article from The Nations covers it perfectly. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/The-hidden-power-agenda-behind-farm-subsidy-scheme-30192328.html

[Soupdragon]

Rice pledging scheme, flood prevention budget, quarterly money laundering practices, I think just as Yingluk is getting comfortable with her position she will be brought crashing down by all the "fat cats" surrounding her !

Her party friends are trashing the house on a free for all binge which will only end in tears !

But, but, but, she is supposed to be in charge, you know as in actually dictating policy, not just watching from the sidelines as, as you say, the larder is raided.

I don't understand why anyone refers to this woman as a leader, she is clearly anything but.

[moe666]

Sooner or later the whole thing will blow up in the PTPs face. They cannot keep it secret forever as a lot of people envolved and sooner or later someone feelings will be hurt and they will blow the whistle.

[smedly]

I had also heard that some of the rice was not even produced in Thailand, money was exiting the country to neighbours like Cambodia, so not only is the rice being stored and possibly spoiled but Thailand is also importing the stuff

As I've said a few times recently this government refuse to publish public debt levels as part of any finacial statements (and even if they did could they be believed) - I wonder why

[animatic]

“About 500 trucks will move in and out of the warehouse all day. We need to know if such an activity will affect traffic and service of the airport premises,” he said.

500 trucks a day

or 31.5 trucks an hour for a 16 hour day =1 truck every 2 minutes

or 20.3 trucks an hour for 24 hours a day =1 truck per minute.

or normal 8 hour business day = 62.5 trucks and hour or 2 per minute

So is this going to be causing trafic issues at Don Muang.

it sure doesn't take a fortune teller to know this is a HUGE trafic addition,

on that single highway to and from.

Oh but they must study it... and rake off A nice study fee of course.

Same same.

Never mind that selling the rice a sub-cost prices means a loss

that must be covered by another segment of the tax base.

Edited October 16, 2012 by animatic

[McMagus]

Bugger, you beat me to that part of the maths...but...you cannot unload a truck instantaneously, it would take some time, so I'm expecting a back up of trucks along the road...brilliant.

[belg]

i guess, with these rice schemes, somebody got his frozen billions back + a good bonus with all the imports from other countries, counted as thai farmers rice at 15.000 baht per tonne, while baught for half of the price

[cloudhopper]

Never mind that selling the rice a sub-cost prices means a loss

that must be covered by another segment of the tax base.

Or by reckless money printing borrowing.

[koolbreez]

" and other populist policies" amounts to trillions of baht raising debt ratio above 70% from the 40% it's at now, and is not temporary going down with rice sales. It is funny how she sluffs off the other huge debt not accociated with the rice scheme that is what was being talked about, but turned into the current topic of the rice scheme. This government has hidden non-preforming loans to give them more borrowing to fund populist infrastructure projects that make the rice scheme look like pocket change, and putting the debt on course for bankruptcy.

[Siripon]

"The premier brushed aside Mr Thirachai’s criticism on the country’s huge public debt from the government’s policy, saying it is merely temporary debt which will be paid after revenue is generated from selling rice."

Pure mathematical genius! The exact figures need to be kept secret though for reasons of grave national security....

It looks like the so called agreements to buy rice are only MOUs with no certain sales to follow. Already the Minister is saying payments will be made by the end of 2013- but no country would be foolish enough to offer a high price for rice over a year in advance! Prices fluctuate and buyers will only pay accordingly.

This policy is starting to look as perhaps the most foolish ever attempted by a Thai government,could someone please contact the Guinness book of records.

[Soupdragon]

If someone in the know (Name begins with T) had control over 20 million tons of rice would he not be a good position to make a fortune on the futures market ??? (not my area of expertise so please correct me if I am wrong).

[Noistar]

Rice pledging scheme, flood prevention budget, quarterly money laundering practices, I think just as Yingluk is getting comfortable with her position she will be brought crashing down by all the "fat cats" surrounding her !

Her party friends are trashing the house on a free for all binge which will only end in tears !

But, but, but, she is supposed to be in charge, you know as in actually dictating policy, not just watching from the sidelines as, as you say, the larder is raided.

I don't understand why anyone refers to this woman as a leader, she is clearly anything but.

Once again posters are treating the PM as incompetent.

She is fully briefed on the issues, has formulated her own statement and is willing to defend her statement when questioned by the Opposition.

Or did I miss something?

[Dap]

i guess, with these rice schemes, somebody got his frozen billions back + a good bonus with all the imports from other countries, counted as thai farmers rice at 15.000 baht per tonne, while baught for half of the price

[Soupdragon]

Rice pledging scheme, flood prevention budget, quarterly money laundering practices, I think just as Yingluk is getting comfortable with her position she will be brought crashing down by all the "fat cats" surrounding her !

Her party friends are trashing the house on a free for all binge which will only end in tears !

But, but, but, she is supposed to be in charge, you know as in actually dictating policy, not just watching from the sidelines as, as you say, the larder is raided.

I don't understand why anyone refers to this woman as a leader, she is clearly anything but.

Once again posters are treating the PM as incompetent.

She is fully briefed on the issues, has formulated her own statement and is willing to defend her statement when questioned by the Opposition.

Or did I miss something?

Sorry, did the PM turn up for a debate ???

Did I miss something ?

[ggold]

Never mind that selling the rice a sub-cost prices means a loss

that must be covered by another segment of the tax base.

Or by reckless money printing borrowing.

How long before the we get 60+ baht to 1GBP, can't be long now!

Sent from my GT-P6200 using Thaivisa Connect App

[MunterHunter]

Once again posters are treating the PM as incompetent.

She is fully briefed on the issues, has formulated her own statement and is willing to defend her statement when questioned by the Opposition.

Or did I miss something?

Awww bless, it finally sunk in... she now understands the party line on this matter, Thaksin explained it to her with drawings in crayon