Burmese smugglers get rich on Yingluck Shinawatra's £13 billion Thai rice subsidies
A populist subsidy on rice by Thailand's ruling party is enabling smugglers from neighbouring Burma to make a quick buck at the expense of Thai taxpayers
By David Eimer, Myawaddy

For the rice smugglers of Myawaddy, business has never been better.

MYAWADDY: -- A scrappy, dusty Burmese border town, Myawaddy has long been notorious as an illicit trading hub for drugs, guns and precious gems.

Now, Myawaddy has become a centre for the trafficking of a more nutritious but scarcely less profitable product, as rice smugglers take advantage of the substantially higher grain prices on offer in neighbouring Thailand.

In Myawaddy, 50 kilos of rice sells for £16. But in Thailand, the same amount is worth £30, a consequence of the ruling Pheu Thai Party’s controversial subsidies to the rice farmers who make up much of its support base.

Known as the “rice-pledging scheme”, the populist policy has cost the government more than £13 billion, prompting the IMF to warn that the scheme is undermining the economy.

But the rice subsidies are also a huge source of anger among the largely middle-class anti-government protesters who have taken to the streets of Bangkok to try and topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai party from power. [read more...]

Full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/10618134/Burmese-smugglers-get-rich-on-Yingluck-Shinawatras-13-billion-Thai-rice-subsidies.html

-- The Telegraph 2014-02-05

Tell me Thaksin doesn't have a tentacle or two involved in buying rice in Burma and selling it in Thailand. What a great way to fleece the government coffers.

So are these Burmese farmers not also waiting for payment?

Tell me Thaksin doesn't have a tentacle or two involved in buying rice in Burma and selling it in Thailand. What a great way to fleece the government coffers.

How many other powerful, influential Thais are also involved in this ?

Another issue that won't stand the light of day.

So are these Burmese farmers not also waiting for payment?

Hmmm, wasn't TS good buddies with the Junta there?

One suspects there might be a special account for "Grown in Thailand" rice imported directly from Myanmar.

--> Tinfoil hat this way

man the poor thai rice farmers can't win for lossing

getting screwed from every direction.

Only Burma? .....

Hey even a smugglers gotta eat

So are these Burmese farmers not also waiting for payment?

I doubt it. The Burnese farmers won't be the ones making the money. It will be the officials and middlemen on both side of the border.

This is "News " every one knew this was going on, and it wasn't the small rice farmer buying it to sell on / pledge to the Thai Gov

Whats is surprising is that this is being reported in western newspapers, yet the Thai press reports nothing. Clearly a story like this is in the public interest and should be reported.

How about Lao, Cambodian and Malaysian smugglers? How rich have they got at the Thai taxpayers expense?

How foolish can the government get?

ah... blame it on the foreigners, burmese this time

as really, really nobody would have forseen this big corruption SCAM in advance ???

seriously ?

So are these Burmese farmers not also waiting for payment?

They got paid in cash (maybe £20-22 for 50kg) by those Thais who are now waiting for the govt tp pay out £30.

Edited February 5, 201412 yr by Morakot

How about Lao, Cambodian and Malaysian smugglers? How rich have they got at the Thai taxpayers expense?

How foolish can the government get?

IIRC they plugged the Cambodia one. Families were stopped bring their rice for home consumption cos it was cheaper.

So Thai rice is not Thai rice anymore. The list of countries not wanting any is going to escalate dramatically after this international reporting.

Fair go! its not as though they are smuggling people, its food !

I love articles like this. Shift the blame to the Burmese and diffuse the problem by finding a new scapegoat. Great reporting, how much does Pheu Thai pay this newspaper.

Sugar, Oil, and now rice. 2 years from now rice prices will be more than double. There will be a mass shortage of rice and then price gouging and then dumping after 6 months the stocks will be replenished but the price will be more than double what it once was. Sugar was 10 baht a kilo 10 years ago now 22-25, oil was 30 baht liter and now 45-55. This is nothing new to Thailand. They do the same thing with shrimp from time to time.

Funny how these populist policies actually hurt the people they are winning the votes from. Free trade with China, blanket loans for farmers without educating them how to invest the money in their business rather than buying tvs and new trucks, touchpads when some schools don't even have electricity or chairs for all the students. Really shows you how the party of the people really doesn't do anything for the people.

It would be nice if the country had transparency on all of their votes and policies. Neither party is for the people because they don't have to be, they only need to convince people they are because no one knows what the real issues of the government are. No debates, no public agendas, too many secret meetings and voting.

Whats is surprising is that this is being reported in western newspapers, yet the Thai press reports nothing. Clearly a story like this is in the public interest and should be reported.

One of the three pillars of democracy, freedom of speech, does not exist here.

One may ask now, if the other two exist either.

An unbiased judiciary and the ability to vote freely.

What's remains?

I love articles like this. Shift the blame to the Burmese and diffuse the problem by finding a new scapegoat. Great reporting, how much does Pheu Thai pay this newspaper.

I doubt PTP pays the telegraph anything. The telegraph is a very well respected UK paper and one which i seriously doubt, would risk its reputation for a few quid from a fairly dubious foreign government.

I don't see the Burmese as scapegoats here. Their involvement is just symptomatic of the interconnected poverty that exists throughout SE Asia. To expect them to ignore a golden opportunity, with rampant corruption endemic throughout the scheme, would be similar to expecting Thailand to uphold IP rights on western films, music, bags, clothes and watches.

No different from the smuggling of sugar, palm oil, garlic, etc.

When there is a price differences the smugglers will be kept employed.

Same same Thai smuggle goes to Malaysia to buy petrol at 20 Baht/ltr and sell in Thailand at twice the price. Last check, 95 unleaed (not the gasohol) is 48 Baht/ltr at thai petrol station.

Edited February 5, 201412 yr by Suriya4

How about Lao, Cambodian and Malaysian smugglers? How rich have they got at the Thai taxpayers expense?

How foolish can the government get?

How foolish can the government get?

Its similar to the fottball fixes, it works best when players from both sides are involved , but to really make it a sure thing, you need to get a referee or two taken care of.

The worst part, is the finger will be pointed at a water boy and people will be convienced that it is/was taken care of.

This article is in the category of propaganda or agitprop. Putting all issues of the rightness or wrongness of the rice pledging scheme aside, the reporter blames all the Thai/Burma smuggling on Ms. Yingluck.

He claims that as long as the Burmese army turns an eye away from illegal activity it can be carried on freely. He makes no mention of the complicity on the Thai side. Who trucked it out the Thai warehouses, who let it pass the Thai military border lines, who announced that it would be available and ready to ship?

This story is pure nonsense and nothing more than the Thai establishment and The Nation trolling around for slapped together stories masquerading as news that favors bringing down the elected government in favor of a "people's council" designated by the protest leadership. It never looks at decades and decades of reciprocal smuggling in humans, drugs, and commodities between Thailand and Burma. This Thai/Burma smuggling is not a phenomenon of Ms. Yingluck or her brother whether you like them or not.

I love articles like this. Shift the blame to the Burmese and diffuse the problem by finding a new scapegoat. Great reporting, how much does Pheu Thai pay this newspaper.

I doubt PTP pays the telegraph anything. The telegraph is a very well respected UK paper and one which i seriously doubt, would risk its reputation for a few quid from a fairly dubious foreign government.

I don't see the Burmese as scapegoats here. Their involvement is just symptomatic of the interconnected poverty that exists throughout SE Asia. To expect them to ignore a golden opportunity, with rampant corruption endemic throughout the scheme, would be similar to expecting Thailand to uphold IP rights on western films, music, bags, clothes and watches.

The Telegraph also ran a very sharp and spikey article about Thaksin's policy that led to 2500 deaths including the lottery-win couple who were shot dead because they were found to have got wealthy suddenly. From memory this Telegraph piece also mentioned that Chalerm was hoping to increase the death toll by 4000 more. The Telegraph is most certainly not pro-PTP.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1579641/Thailand-threat-to-shoot-4000-in-drug-war.html

Re; the rice, it is hard to see how this loophole isn't intentional. The subsidy scheme was badly planned out anyway, but even a small child could tell you that there has to be a system to prevent foreign exploitation of the subsidy. To me it doesn't add up at all except that it was just one big deliberate scam from the starting whistle.

I love articles like this. Shift the blame to the Burmese and diffuse the problem by finding a new scapegoat. Great reporting, how much does Pheu Thai pay this newspaper.

Sugar, Oil, and now rice. 2 years from now rice prices will be more than double. There will be a mass shortage of rice and then price gouging and then dumping after 6 months the stocks will be replenished but the price will be more than double what it once was. Sugar was 10 baht a kilo 10 years ago now 22-25, oil was 30 baht liter and now 45-55. This is nothing new to Thailand. They do the same thing with shrimp from time to time.

Funny how these populist policies actually hurt the people they are winning the votes from. Free trade with China, blanket loans for farmers without educating them how to invest the money in their business rather than buying tvs and new trucks, touchpads when some schools don't even have electricity or chairs for all the students. Really shows you how the party of the people really doesn't do anything for the people.

It would be nice if the country had transparency on all of their votes and policies. Neither party is for the people because they don't have to be, they only need to convince people they are because no one knows what the real issues of the government are. No debates, no public agendas, too many secret meetings and voting.

I think that everybody knows that if there is rice being imported illegally then its more government corruption.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Tell me Thaksin doesn't have a tentacle or two involved in buying rice in Burma and selling it in Thailand. What a great way to fleece the government coffers.

...... fleece the common wealth of all Thai people.

Not all of course, there is also rice legally imported into Thailand.

Read that Thailand is the forth or fifth biggest customer for Cambodian rice.

Which incidentally was this year judged the best rice in the world for the second year running

This scam is old , soon as the rice scheme was announced rice was pouring across all borders by the truck loads .

So are these Burmese farmers not also waiting for payment?

What you think?