Thai govt to meet EC for permission to borrow to repay rice farmers

[nong38]

Can the Prime Minister please tell the country where the budget went first time round?

[scorecard]

I will add that this government say they are all about reform, and in the same breath are asking the EC to endorse their vote buying to secure the rice farming vote. But they don't realise that even the farmers lucky enough to have their money from this harvest know they won't have the same chance of that for the next harvest if they continue to vote for this pile of <deleted>.

Sorry guys, but no money left for you..... Maybe if we had not stolen 400 billion so far, we would be able to pay you all twice over.

Agree, and further, part of the 'reform' that the protestors want is massive drop in corruption, more professionalism, respect for laws and regulations, etc etc.

Meanwhile yesterday the gov't said that they would tell the BACC bank to take the funds from general deposits to pay the farmers. Again a signal that this gov't has no respect for proper regulations, nor professionalism.

If they do in fact try to tap funds on general deposit I hope some other body sues the gov't over this, and perhaps even the Bank of Thailand could / should step in and insist that it's not legal and utterly not appropriate.

Further, if the govt did try to demand that BACC take funds from general deposits, there is surely a good possibility that moodies, standard & poos etc., would downgrade Thailand in terms of risk.

[JesseFrank]

Why they need the loan ? On 20 December the deputy commerce minister claimed that there would be an injection of 60 Billion Baht in the BAAC. Do they never stop lying ?

The minister insisted that the Finance Ministry had assured that before the end of this year, there would be an injection of 60 billion baht fresh fund into the BAAC to pay the farmers. There will be enough funding to sustain the rice pledging scheme till its end in next February, he added.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/690580-baac-top-management-slammed-for-confusing-thai-farmers/?hl=%20baac%20%20slammed

[LevelHead]

I will add that this government say they are all about reform, and in the same breath are asking the EC to endorse their vote buying to secure the rice farming vote. But they don't realise that even the farmers lucky enough to have their money from this harvest know they won't have the same chance of that for the next harvest if they continue to vote for this pile of <deleted>.

Sorry guys, but no money left for you..... Maybe if we had not stolen 400 billion so far, we would be able to pay you all twice over.

Agree, and further, part of the 'reform' that the protestors want is massive drop in corruption, more professionalism, respect for laws and regulations, etc etc.

Meanwhile yesterday the gov't said that they would tell the BACC bank to take the funds from general deposits to pay the farmers. Again a signal that this gov't has no respect for proper regulations, nor professionalism.

If they do in fact try to tap funds on general deposit I hope some other body sues the gov't over this, and perhaps even the Bank of Thailand could / should step in and insist that it's not legal and utterly not appropriate.

Further, if the govt did try to demand that BACC take funds from general deposits, there is surely a good possibility that moodies, standard & poos etc., would downgrade Thailand in terms of risk.

And who told you they would be taking general funds from the BACC ?

Would it perhaps be yet another un-named source in a local media rag ?

These sources come up with so many stories and yet 90% of them seem to just nonsense, designed to incite anti-government protests........... now why would they do that ?

Just my opinion.

[LuckyLew]

Darling of Isaan..... my arse!

Your arse is the darling of Isaan?

[espinoza]

But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing.

The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!

Yingluck, you messed up so don't expect the EC to bail you out.... Live with it or step down.

"But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing."

Where did you get the information???

"The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!"

If this is the case, the commissioners are guilty of abused of power, conflict of interest, dereliction of duty.

Agreed, if the EC would say 'no' because the government doesn't want to do anything about postponement apart from talking, that would be abuse of power, etc., etc.

Luckily that's not the case. It's just a matter of bad budgetting by the government. They took the 350 billion Water Mgmt loan out of the National Budget, they took the 2.2 trillion load for infra structure out of the National Budget. For transparancy reasons of course. That should have created enough margin for rice price pledging policy. It would seem it didn't. Poor fiscal planning.

How and when the government took the 350 billion Water Mgmt loan out of the National Budget, they took the 2.2 trillion load for infra structure out of the National Budget.

I don't understand what you meant by "out of the National Budget". The 2,2 trillion load you mentioned is an off budget loan. A budget to fund the rice pledging scheme was endorsed by the government last September before the dissolution of the parliament. There is enough money for it.

Yes there is enough money for this, they just forgot where the money was hidden.

[trainman34014]

But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing.

The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!

Yingluck, you messed up so don't expect the EC to bail you out.... Live with it or step down.

Another way of looking at this is :

PTP want to pay so farmers are happy with that.

EC keeps saying no which makes farmers angry.

Farmers blame Suthep and Democrats for making problems.

Farmers blame EC for not allowing payment.

YL appears to be doing fine out of this.

Ahem...It's effigy's of Yingluck they are burning, not Suthep or members of the EC !

[LuckyLew]

"2014 National Budget Set for Driving Thailands National Strategies (30/05/2013)"

http://thailand.prd.go.th/view_news.php?id=6788&a=2

It has

"The national budget also takes into account the issuance of an executive decree to allow the Ministry of Finance to secure 350-billion-baht loans for water resources management and future development and a royal decree empowering the Ministry of Finance to secure 2.2-trillion baht loans for investment in infrastructure development."

Funding endorsed should mean funding allocated. It would seem no allocation has been made.

was allocated to several of shore accounts

[Thait Spot]

But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing.

The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!

Yingluck, you messed up so don't expect the EC to bail you out.... Live with it or step down.

Another way of looking at this is :

PTP want to pay so farmers are happy with that.

EC keeps saying no which makes farmers angry.

Farmers blame Suthep and Democrats for making problems.

Farmers blame EC for not allowing payment.

YL appears to be doing fine out of this.

She must be thoroughly ecstatic at having her effigy burned.

That's one for the family album

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Thait Spot]

Another way of looking at this is :

PTP want to pay so farmers are happy with that.

EC keeps saying no which makes farmers angry.

Farmers blame Suthep and Democrats for making problems.

Farmers blame EC for not allowing payment.

YL appears to be doing fine out of this.

But the farmers are protesting about the government, not the EC or the protesters. They may be uneducated but they are not as stupid or gullible as some.

I think you will find they are protesting about not being paid, thats all.

Read the article.

Its very short as are the words.

The farmers are pissed off at being lied to so many times

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Trickcyclist]

Is there no impeachment process in this country?

[Pawpcorn]

By having a stillborn parliament, that won't be able to open ? Is that the promised oasis the country can greet in two weeks ?

Hey Scamper, thanks for your in-depth analysis of the day to day; simply brilliant, and I look forward to your posts, daily.

Regarding this "not-enough-MPs" issue (as you are referring to a "stillborn parliament")... haven't you heard about the recent maneuvering the government's been taking, to try and register AFTER THE FACT, the candidates that never got registered during the registration period?

I'm firmly in belief that they have an end-game plan to get LAST-MINUTE registration of ALL the missing candidates achieved, and THEN(!!!), if they force the issue of an election on Feb. 2... presto, magic, enough PMs for a fully-functional government again.

I didn't really mean "fully functional" in the traditional sense, we KNOW they are fully Dysfunctional....

Just "fully functional" looting and thieving, then able to let the Amnesty bill be passed 180 days after the Senate rejected it in 2013.

Pawpcorn

[djjamie]

But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing.

The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!

Yingluck, you messed up so don't expect the EC to bail you out.... Live with it or step down.

Another way of looking at this is :

PTP want to pay so farmers are happy with that.

EC keeps saying no which makes farmers angry.

Farmers blame Suthep and Democrats for making problems.

Farmers blame EC for not allowing payment.

YL appears to be doing fine out of this.

For once I agree with you.

You have single handedly highlighted that the farmers are uninformed and uneducated.

It is the PTP's fault they don't have the money "in the bank" to pay for the scheme, but the farmers will, through red shirt propaganda as you stated above, blame the DEMS.

The EC do not want to be held accountable financially for the failings of the PTP however.

If the EC does lend the money then well done for the farmers. Like the PTP I do hope they get paid. I actually hope they all get paid and pretty soon. The suicides are mounting.

Thanks for highlighting that the country is where it is because there are farmars that will believe that corrupt govt.'s are doing them a favor.

Well done.

[Dogmatix]

The EC will probably be prosecuted for malfeasance, if they agree to this, same as the directors of BAAC, if they hand over the bank's money, as requested by the government.

Best thing for Kittirat to do would be to Skype the Boss and ask him to transfer the money. It was all his stupid idea in the first place.

[Baerboxer]

But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing.

The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!

Yingluck, you messed up so don't expect the EC to bail you out.... Live with it or step down.

Another way of looking at this is :

PTP want to pay so farmers are happy with that.

EC keeps saying no which makes farmers angry.

Farmers blame Suthep and Democrats for making problems.

Farmers blame EC for not allowing payment.

YL appears to be doing fine out of this.

Yes - she's not out of pocket, the family have made money, big brother aka the caddy has increased his wealth 450%.

You are right - she's doing just fine and dandy out of all this (Unless those pesky NACC probes cause trouble - sure that will go nowhere as usual)

[rwdrwdrwd]

Is there no impeachment process in this country?

We're in it.

[aimbc]

So lil sis finally decided to contact the EC. Or was she told to do so by the missunderstood fugitive? Perhaps they will offer the EC a deal: postpone the elections and then be allowed to borrow billions more to throw away for vote-buying. The EC most certainly will not allow the shinaclan to borrow more money. If they would they would actively support the reds.

Hmmm.... ....didn't YS slap EC in the face by hosting that....oh yes....the election meeting because she thinks EC didn't know how to host one. And also....hmmmmmm.... ....didn't YS blew off the request by EC to meet with her. Yeah....she is really thinking on her own. Time to get rid of the losers around her. Again, these are not human, can not even be responsible for their own actions and always passing the buck on to someone else. Yeah....such great leaders they are.

[aimbc]

But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing.

The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!

Yingluck, you messed up so don't expect the EC to bail you out.... Live with it or step down.

"But the rice budget has run out of money and all further payments will need to come from extra-budgetary borrowing."

Where did you get the information???

"The more the government resists the EC's calls for an election postponement, the more the EC will continue to say NO!"

If this is the case, the commissioners are guilty of abused of power, conflict of interest, dereliction of duty.

Boy....you really had to dig deep for that one. Good try....but no.

[aimbc]

They arnt burning anything they want to be paid, look get it in your head that they arn't going to not vote the same as always they just want to be paid. These people dont have time or interest in the goings on in BKK they just want to be paid. They will still vote for the only party that has ever appeared to benefit them.

Just because people protest sometimes about things does not mean they want a revolution about everything else.

I agree with you on this one. Let them get it from YS and her cronies. Don't bother the EC and the taxpayers.

[chadintheusa]

I guess they PT were to busy lining their own pockets in the fall and forgot to pay the farmers. Should have been dealt with before the election was called. Issuing payments now for overpriced rice during an election would not look too good. Failure to pay may result in bolstering the protests in Bangkok. Maybe someone in Dubai can buy some rice. Eventually the rice scheme will be the undoing of Yingluck and get her banned from politics for a season. Thaksin better make sure his son is ready to run for office as he is quickly running out of relatives.

[hellyes2oo2]

Here's an intereting scenario. Yingluck asks for permission to borrow billions of bhat to pay the farmers. The EC refuse her permission. Yinluck in panic mode calls all her advisers to a meeting, and says if we can't pay the farmers now, we have no chance of winning the election, so let's agree to the EC's request for a postponement, and maybe we can find a way to get the money for the farmers from elsewhere. So off she goes to the EC, and says ok we will call of the election until May. But the EC replies,sorry but you have already told the country that it would be illegal to call off the election, so it has to go ahead. Oh shit, what do i do now.

[Ricardo]

And who told you they would be taking general funds from the BACC ?

Would it perhaps be yet another un-named source in a local media rag ?

These sources come up with so many stories and yet 90% of them seem to just nonsense, designed to incite anti-government protests........... now why would they do that ?

Just my opinion.

IMO 90% of the nonsense is being spouted by the caretaker-government, in a vain attempt to reassure the desperate unpaid poor rice-farmers, that they really will get paid sometime, so don't abandon us until after 2nd February !

But hopefully the farmers' leaders are seeing through the barrage of propaganda & lies, to the fact that the defaults started, long before Suthep's supporters came out on the street !

[HerbalEd]

I don't understand what the "Election" Commission has to do with such approvals. Can anyone enlighten me?

[Jonmarleesco]

The mire is getting to be deeper than the paddy fields.

[Jonmarleesco]

I don't understand what the "Election" Commission has to do with such approvals. Can anyone enlighten me?

I imagine the fact that the 'government' is caretaking, not governing.

[scorecard]

I will add that this government say they are all about reform, and in the same breath are asking the EC to endorse their vote buying to secure the rice farming vote. But they don't realise that even the farmers lucky enough to have their money from this harvest know they won't have the same chance of that for the next harvest if they continue to vote for this pile of <deleted>.

Sorry guys, but no money left for you..... Maybe if we had not stolen 400 billion so far, we would be able to pay you all twice over.

Agree, and further, part of the 'reform' that the protestors want is massive drop in corruption, more professionalism, respect for laws and regulations, etc etc.

Meanwhile yesterday the gov't said that they would tell the BACC bank to take the funds from general deposits to pay the farmers. Again a signal that this gov't has no respect for proper regulations, nor professionalism.

If they do in fact try to tap funds on general deposit I hope some other body sues the gov't over this, and perhaps even the Bank of Thailand could / should step in and insist that it's not legal and utterly not appropriate.

Further, if the govt did try to demand that BACC take funds from general deposits, there is surely a good possibility that moodies, standard & poos etc., would downgrade Thailand in terms of risk.

And who told you they would be taking general funds from the BACC ?

Would it perhaps be yet another un-named source in a local media rag ?

These sources come up with so many stories and yet 90% of them seem to just nonsense, designed to incite anti-government protests........... now why would they do that ?

Just my opinion.

Check the newspapers / on-line reporting within the last 3 to 4 days and you will easily find specifically what I mentioned.

Edited January 18, 2014 by scorecard