Bank of Agriculture' labour union opposes Thai rice subsidy scheme

[theslime]

5 days left Yingluck before yet another broken promise....

...what you gonna do?

And who's fault would that be? Suthep or Santa Claus? A Caretaker government cant borrow money.... Full stop, so how can they pay the farmers, Suthep is trying to paralyse the country and you seem to be inferring that this is Yinglucks fault. Sorry, but that last time that International Moderators of the last election stated " The PTP have won the elections fairly... Oh I forgot they are wrong too. Winning by a landslide of between 5-6 million votes is no coincedence.

, maybe you could blame Thaksins Grannies for having sex in China, ergo no vote buying rice scam, no murder of 2500 in vote for me as I,m against drug,s scam, vote for me as I,ll get rid of those Muslim dissenters[Thai] farmers in the south. If you think Thaksin got elected fairly obviously you think rice is worth 15,0000 baht a tonne and its not a buy vote scam, pity the worlds rice buyers dont agree with your assumptions.

[CantSpell]

Make a quick estimate of how much money the farmers have actually received in last 2 years...

Make another calculation of how much the government said it has paid...

Probably missing around 40-50% between the two figures, find in which pockets those 40-50% have gone...

Should be enough to pay the farmers for over a year doing nothing....

[rickirs]

Unbelievable, the PTP is pressuring the BAAC to use up the last of it liquidity and or customers deposits to fund the rice scam, they wont be happy til the bank is insolvent.

Look at it from the bright side. If the bank is bust, they need the government even more. Hence, more power to the Shins.

Another bright side is that if the farmers are not paid, there will be no rice enterprise, no bank to support that enterprise and no labor union. Bank liquidity is only as good as the ability of its customers to have equity to borrow funds.

[rickirs]

the banks labour union is telling the bank how to run it's business . (even if they have a point) sounds like yellow shirt supporters wanting to cause trouble

Permission must be given by the Election Commission for the Government to spend the money for the rice subsidy. What is EC's position? I suspect that if the request is made in the context of preserving peace in the country during these difficult political times, the EC may give permission. The economic alternative is that the BAAC is out of business as the farmers will have insufficient capital to even borrow funds, and the whole rice farming industry faces collapse.

[slapout]

As mentioned earlier, The government dropped the ball again by not making financial plans prior to the 'desolution', for pending government expenditures. It seems they made provision for year end bonuses and other self enrichment perks, but that seems to follow PT government line of past priorities.

The Bank of Thailand has been noting the outflow of funds from the market and country for several weeks. I wonder if the money landering boys have been making notes of the companies, their principals, individuals etc. who have been rushing to protect their finances? The DSI is probably too busy withe the 25,000 corruption cases they have on the books When the final accounting is done it will not be a great suprise for the rice program to be in the negative to the tune of 30+ billion US.

Whatever the loss is, the Ag bank's latest figures for rice pledgeing is less than 3 million farmers.They have mantained for weeks that they need a large input of cash to continue the program and they have been treated like the farmers in this regard. "Be patient" seems to be this government motto when it comes to the people of Thailand.

[tomacht8]

What a fiasco.

Now the farmers cooperative has landed on the ground of facts.

Two years they were all smiling about this 800 Billion money rain.

Understandable.

If a stupid buyer comes along and pays 40% above the market price, why not.

But now the rain is past and the fun stops.

Of course, the bank is not willing to burn their own capital and their own reserves for this brainless rice scheme.

The damage to the economy and for the farmers is huge.

They must stop this §$% rice scheme, but also they must help selectively to alleviate the greatest distress among the farmers.

It would be good if the farmers with insider knowledge would call the NACC and giving them a hint about corrupt people
who filled there pockets illegally. Each recovered baht could be distributed to the affected farmers.

[wprime]

The bosses of the labour unions are in the Ruling Elites pocket. i wonder if they democratically consulted. their rank and file members before announcing their opposition. Doubt it.

So, now the

labor unions (banks, electric, harbors, railway)

the Thai Airways staff

the Bangkok middle class

the other big city downtown middle class

all the southerns

all the democrats

the national forest staff

the soldiers

the royalists

the communists

the big universities

the students

some Buddhist groups

all in the pocket of the mysterious elites no one can name. They must have deep pockets. Now they could even buy the Singha daughter who holds 10 % of the Singha shares.

But with all the deep pockets they could not buy the elections or a few MPs?

Or maybe it isn't the elite who is against the Robin Hood from Dubai. Maybe just a lot people are fed up with corruption, vote buying and destroying democracy.

Don't forget the rice farmers who are protesting about not getting their rice money - they too are clearly being controlled by some unnamed mysterious elites.

[LuckyLew]

About time someone or some group made a stand ...

PTP is willing to lose (steal / vote buy) untold billions

Hope the rice scam finally crashes and burns ...

Hey Yingluck ... Now boarding flight ... destination Dubai

Really, think of the farmers who have been waiting for months. They are not as rich as the elite and need this money. People should stop thinking about Yingluck and think about the People of Thailand first.

Yes it has failed and yes it should not be aloud to continue. But they should pay up the money to the farmers.

How, and with what???? Pray tell just where will this money materialise from???

put a tax on tourists entering the country. stop the diesel subsidy there is lots of ways to get the money

Sure pay the for crops already pledged ... maybe

but surely this pledging rice scam must be stopped ... NOW

This cannot be allowed to continue for 1 2 3 or 4 more years

[Mosha]

5 days left Yingluck before yet another broken promise....

...what you gonna do?

Call rice scam busters.

[Mosha]

5 days left Yingluck before yet another broken promise....

...what you gonna do?

And who's fault would that be? Suthep or Santa Claus? A Caretaker government cant borrow money.... Full stop, so how can they pay the farmers, Suthep is trying to paralyse the country and you seem to be inferring that this is Yinglucks fault. Sorry, but that last time that International Moderators of the last election stated " The PTP have won the elections fairly... Oh I forgot they are wrong too. Winning by a landslide of between 5-6 million votes is no coincedence.

Clue a haven't got. Rearrange into a well known phrase or saying. The rice schene scam was in trouble well before these protests.

[Robby nz]

It would seem the farmers are going to have to wait another 10 days, from yesterdays news :

Posted Yesterday, 11:21

Commerce Ministry confirms it has enough fund for rice mortgage scheme

BANGKOK, 9 Jan 2014 (NNT) - The Commerce Ministry has reaffirmed that it has enough fund for the rice pledging scheme, expecting to make the payments to all participating farmers in the 2013/2014 season by January 25th.

The Ministry is expecting the farmers to pledge 10 million tons of rice in the current production season. Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan stated that the amount would need 140 billion baht in compensation, adding that the ministry already paid 30 billion baht to the farmers, leaving 77 billion baht in payment pending. He expected that the payments would be completed within January 25th.

Nonetheless the scheme still lacks 40 billion baht, and the Commerce Ministry will urgently ask the Election Commission (EC) to approve its planned borrowing of 130 billion baht to finance the scheme. He said that even if the EC does not give the nod on the matter, the Commerce Ministry is still able to use the money obtained from selling the pledged rice to be returned to the farmers.

Meanwhile, the EC has approved the ministry’s request to sell the pledged rice in stock by any means it deems appropriate. The Commerce Ministry, thus, has plans to clear the stock through both auctioning and Government-to-Government deals. It expects to sell another 500,000 tons of rice in the new release.

But the farmers say today :

Buriram and Yasothorn farmers demand rice payment by January 15



BANGKOK: -- Over 100 farmers from three districts of Buriram province rallied in front of the city town hall to demand the payment of the rice they sold to the government under the rice-pledging scheme but were not yet paid for over three months.

The rice they sold was harvested during the 2013/2014 harvest year.

Farmer leader Pramual Bothong said farmers now have no money to pay for necessary items needed for planting new crop and their daily expenditures.

He said if the government does not pay them by January 15, farmers will have no choice but to either shut down government office center in Buriram or to join the Bangkok Shutdown protest in Bangkok.

At the same time farmers in Yasothorn province also rallied at the city town hall demanding same payment by January 15.

Yasothorn deputy governor Chanya Sukonkantachart told farmers that the Finance Ministry has allocated the first payment of 417 million baht and is now paying to 4,000 farmers, while the rest 40,000 farmers would have to await the next allocation which is expected soon.

Farmers agreed to disperse but would return if they did not get the money as were promised.

Source: http://englishnews.t...ent-january-15/


-- Thai PBS 2014-01-10

Looks like there will be another group joining the protest after the 15th.

[mikemac]

The bosses of the labour unions are in the Ruling Elites pocket. i wonder if they democratically consulted. their rank and file members before announcing their opposition. Doubt it.

So, now the

labor unions (banks, electric, harbors, railway)

the Thai Airways staff

the Bangkok middle class

the other big city downtown middle class

all the southerns

all the democrats

the national forest staff

the soldiers

the royalists

the communists

the big universities

the students

some Buddhist groups

all in the pocket of the mysterious elites no one can name. They must have deep pockets. Now they could even buy the Singha daughter who holds 10 % of the Singha shares.

But with all the deep pockets they could not buy the elections or a few MPs?

Or maybe it isn't the elite who is against the Robin Hood from Dubai. Maybe just a lot people are fed up with corruption, vote buying and destroying democracy.

Don't forget the rice farmers who are protesting about not getting their rice money - they too are clearly being controlled by some unnamed mysterious elites.

Gee, is there anyone out there who is not "in the Ruling Elite's pockets" ?

And there I was thinking it was only the redshirts who were in the Ruling Elite's pockets..............................

[Ricardo]

When will the UDD take up the good fight, on behalf of the poor rice-farmers, who have been blatantly cheated by this supposedly help-the-poor government ?

Or on behalf of the rubber farmers, or the rest ?

Of course it might damage their chances, of the Red-leaders retaining their places 'at the trough' in Parliament, but so what ?

And why is PTP's 'Big Boss' & 'Big Thinker' going to say anything, or better apologise, for the failure of this key policy of his ?

[Daniel Boon]

and exactly How will they boost productivity?

(you really believe rice farmers are sitting on their hands rather than improving productivity / profits / returns?)