Caretaker PM Yingluck dragged into rice subsidy scandal

[webfact]

Caretaker PM Yingluck dragged into rice subsidy scandal
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, Jan 16 – The embattled government is incapable of paying farmers for rice purchase under its highly-criticised subsidy scheme, according to a former Democrat MP.

Warong Dechgitvigrom, former MP from Phitsanulok, said the government could not meet the Jan 15 deadline to pay farmers who have sold rice from the 2013/2014 crop under the scheme.

He said it is highly possible that former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom will be charged by the National Anti Corruption Committee (NACC) with corruption in the government’s rice sales on a government-to-government basis.

The NACC is scheduled to announce its investigation of the scandal today.

Dr Warong called on the NACC to also include caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in the investigation in her capacity as chairperson of the National Rice Policy Committee.

Jurin Laksanawisit, Democrat deputy spokesman, said the government has also postponed payment of rubber purchases from southern farmers to Feb 14.

He said the payment after the Feb 2 general election could be interpreted as an attempt to press farmers to vote for candidates in the government bloc.

More than 400 farmers in Bangsai District, Ayutthaya, lodged complaints with the Internal Trade Department (ITD), saying the government has yet to pay at least Bt87 million for rice in the 2012/2013 crop under the pledging scheme.

Nopporn Linthong, ITD deputy director general, gave assurances to farmers that they would be paid on Monday.

Ayutthaya farmers have sold rice from the 2013/2014 harvest at a total value of Bt1,575 billion but have received only Bt945 million while the remaining Bt630 million has yet to be paid to them.

Udon Rungfah, manager of the Buri Ram branch of the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), said the bank was unable to pay over 2,000 farmers who have sold their rice as it has yet to receive a Bt68 million budget from the government.

One of the farmers, Buaphan Kunrak, said he has sold rice under the subsidy programme for nearly three months but has not received payment, adding that he has to use his land title deed as collateral to borrow from the BAAC to pay debts.

Pramuan Bohthai, a farmer leader in Chamni district of Buri Ram, said over 51,000 farmers have been waiting for payments from the government.

He said farmers were discussing possible movement to pressure the government for the payments.

In the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, the BAAC has already made eight payments, totaling Bt1.911 billion, for rice purchase and the ninth payment at a total of Bt167 million was made on Tuesday.

Farmers in Khemarat and Natan districts who have been waiting for their payments, totaling Bt8.4 billion, were discussing the possibility of protesting against the government. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-01-16

[ginjag]

When in the capacity of CEO/Prime Minister/Chairperson, you are responsible for your actions. If therefore corruption is rampant you my dear have to face the consequences. You have to realize this. you have to be aware of the dangers when you take the helm.

On things such as this --mega scale you cannot say give me time as you said before it is not wearing your people are not as stupid as you think.

[GentlemanJim]

I think somebody on the Editorial staff need to seriously consider employing a pre-university grade mathematician to check the numbers published in The Nation.

Not a good situation really. So farmers whom the BAAC cannot afford to pay are having to use their land as collateral to borrow money from the same bank that cannot afford to pay them the money for the rice pledging scheme. How ironic. The ice holding up Thailand's economy gets thinner each day, whoop whoop, it will soon be time to transfer a lot of GBP or USD into baht - happy days.

[khwaibah]

Same oh same oh. Nothing new here.

[kurnell]

Dragged into??

[ginjag]

Dragged into??

Do you mean -ought to be ???

[Evolare]

Dragged into??

hehe exactly she is neck deep into it already

[ggold]

I think somebody on the Editorial staff need to seriously consider employing a pre-university grade mathematician to check the numbers published in The Nation.

Not a good situation really. So farmers whom the BAAC cannot afford to pay are having to use their land as collateral to borrow money from the same bank that cannot afford to pay them the money for the rice pledging scheme. How ironic. The ice holding up Thailand's economy gets thinner each day, whoop whoop, it will soon be time to transfer a lot of GBP or USD into baht - happy days.

or maybe you need glasses! BAAC cannot pay the farmers because they are still waitng for money to come from the government!

Udon Rungfah, manager of the Buri Ram branch of the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), said the bank was unable to pay over 2,000 farmers who have sold their rice as it has yet to receive a Bt68 million budget from the government.

[Evolare]

I think somebody on the Editorial staff need to seriously consider employing a pre-university grade mathematician to check the numbers published in The Nation.

Not a good situation really. So farmers whom the BAAC cannot afford to pay are having to use their land as collateral to borrow money from the same bank that cannot afford to pay them the money for the rice pledging scheme. How ironic. The ice holding up Thailand's economy gets thinner each day, whoop whoop, it will soon be time to transfer a lot of GBP or USD into baht - happy days.

sadly this is true many farmers that the government havent paid yet are loaning money from the very same bank that cant afford to pay them. The irony right! a frie d of mine her family is in that very situation living in sisaket being rice farmers

[worgeordie]

It should be the buck stops here !, but this been Thailand

no one is going to take any responsibility,for anything.

The full truth about whats been going on with this scam

will never be told,how long can Thailand go on loosing

tax payers money with this and a myriad of other dubious,

blatantly corrupt schemes is the question,money wasted when it

could have been put to good use to improve things for

the good of the Thai people.

regards Worgeordie

[englishoak]

I think somebody on the Editorial staff need to seriously consider employing a pre-university grade mathematician to check the numbers published in The Nation.

Not a good situation really. So farmers whom the BAAC cannot afford to pay are having to use their land as collateral to borrow money from the same bank that cannot afford to pay them the money for the rice pledging scheme. How ironic. The ice holding up Thailand's economy gets thinner each day, whoop whoop, it will soon be time to transfer a lot of GBP or USD into baht - happy days.

sadly this is true many farmers that the government havent paid yet are loaning money from the very same bank that cant afford to pay them. The irony right! a frie d of mine her family is in that very situation living in sisaket being rice farmers

whats the chances of either the gov paying the interest on the loans cos they messed up or the bank understandingly charging the gov the interest instead ??? yea right ... zero

[Robby nz]

Excuse of course will be that : as she has never actually attended a meeting of the committee which she chairs she cant be held responsible.

[slapout]

The Prime Minister who proclaims and is recongized as a member/leader of the present political party in power, was not dragged into this scandle, but proposed it during the campaign to win election, for the Shin family and their cronies to assume the seats as head of government. She was a part of the political goal to propose, implement, and skim off money under a false promise of helping the rice farmers in return for their vote/support, so they could gain control of The Thai nation and its people.

You can defend, point fingers, cover up, shift blame, lie, cheat and steal and you will not change the facts and in this case, its becoming more doubtful that you will win the proposed election so you can attempt to rewrite history. The people of Thailand and the world are watching and will monitor every move made for the next few weeks by all individuals and most of the political parties involved.

You wanted your name on the marquee, and to be in the spotlight, well you got it, for better or worse.

[nong38]

I suppose if she cancelled the scheme she would lose a lot of votes and a lot rather swish motors would not be aquired not mention homes a plenty, how they managed it on their salary was a complete mystery to all.

[smedly]

This rice payment issue is going to become an election bribe as it was 2.5 years ago - what are the odds PTP will soon deliver a statement saying - vote for us and you will get your money, but the truth of the matter is they have no money until the 2x trillion baht scam loan gets approved if ever, PTP have raped this country to levels never imagined before - they have lied - cheated - deceived - thieved for over 2 years............... Thaksins revenge

and during this time Thaksin has trebled his wealth from $400m to almost $1.5 billion - a figure that most Thais couldn't even imagine

[Mosha]

Reading the headline, one would gather that the scam came as a complete surprise to her.

[AleG]

It should be the buck stops here !, but this been Thailand

no one is going to take any responsibility,for anything.

The full truth about whats been going on with this scam

will never be told,how long can Thailand go on loosing

tax payers money with this and a myriad of other dubious,

blatantly corrupt schemes is the question,money wasted when it

could have been put to good use to improve things for

the good of the Thai people.

regards Worgeordie

With a Thaksin government you can rest assured the buck stops with him, and by buck I mean US notes.

[bubblegum]

I wonder how soon she'll be of the alumni honory list of Kentucky U.

[Brevity]

Excuse of course will be that : as she has never actually attended a meeting of the committee which she chairs she cant be held responsible.

That's the same kind of thing I was thinking. It seems likely that Thaksin has told her all along which committees to head up, what official functions to get involved in and what policies to push through government. She is probably the most confused of anybody about why she may be investigated. If you don't really understand what you are doing every day or what is happening around you, it must be very confusing when the sh*t hits the fan and lands on you.

Does anybody else have a bit of sympathy for this woman and feel that maybe is really mostly a victim of her big brother and not actually responsible for all the cock ups this government has made?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

YL really SHOULD be investigated as part of the rice pledging scam.

But, unfortunately, despite the headline of MCOT article, there's not much in the actual article that says or suggests she will be. Just one Democrat saying she should be.

How she has managed to NOT be charged or investigated thus far is the really amazing part.

[MMarlow]

I suppose if she cancelled the scheme she would lose a lot of votes and a lot rather swish motors would not be aquired not mention homes a plenty, how they managed it on their salary was a complete mystery to all.

"how they managed it on their salary was a complete mystery to all."

How who managed what?

[BuddyPinkham]

Same oh same oh. Nothing new here.

Actually, it is SAME OLD, SAME OLD!

[Jack Mountain]

"Jurin Laksanawisit, Democrat deputy spokesman, said the government has also postponed payment of rubber purchases from southern farmers to Feb 14."

Feb 14 is a national holi(y)day, i know enough.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Jack Mountain

[BuddyPinkham]

I wonder how soon she'll be of the alumni honory list of Kentucky U.

The Kentucky University doesn't even make the TOP 400 universities in the USA. So, I wouldn't be to proud of that (alumni honorary list) to begin with :-)

Edited January 16, 2014 by BuddyPinkham

[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed as well as the replies.

[waza]

Its ok she is covered by the blanket amnesty bill, once they win this pesky election and implement it.

Edited January 16, 2014 by waza

[SparklingCascades]

Either farmers are unhappy cos' rice does not pay or a subsidy is put in place which destroys Thaiand's rice-exports. Now farmers cannot get paid what was agreed under a very controversial scheme.

Does anything work ?

Edited January 16, 2014 by metisdead
Font reset to normal.

[Jack Mountain]

"Makes my country the Thaigeria of Asia."

I don't get that. Thaigeria, what's that?

Edited January 16, 2014 by metisdead
Font reset to default forum font.

[SparklingCascades]

"Makes my country the Thaigeria of Asia."

I don't get that. Thaigeria, what's that?

Hello friend -

Many investors and businesses privately say that in Asia, Thailand often looks like Nigeria does in Africa.

Hence the word Thai-geria.

I have had to edit my post and move it elsewhere. sori.

[scorecard]

Excuse of course will be that : as she has never actually attended a meeting of the committee which she chairs she cant be held responsible.

That's the same kind of thing I was thinking. It seems likely that Thaksin has told her all along which committees to head up, what official functions to get involved in and what policies to push through government. She is probably the most confused of anybody about why she may be investigated. If you don't really understand what you are doing every day or what is happening around you, it must be very confusing when the sh*t hits the fan and lands on you.

Does anybody else have a bit of sympathy for this woman and feel that maybe is really mostly a victim of her big brother and not actually responsible for all the cock ups this government has made?

No.

She's not the brightest light but nobody can convince me she didn't know plenty of details of the 'join the paymasters get real rich real quick club'.

And I have little doubt the carrot dangled for her was a pretty good carrot.

Did she personally design the rice scheme? Very doubtful, but any person with half a brain would have checked how it worked.

She was possibly pushed a little to become the pm but she wasn't forced into the job.

She said yes, so she has to accept the consequences.

Should she be pretty angry with her puppet master and possibly other up front members of the family clan? Interesting to say the least.