Rice farmers to get payments next week, Yingluck assures

[webfact]

POPULIST POLICY
Rice farmers to get payments next week, Yingluck assures
The Nation


Sacks of rice are readied for night-time loading onto a long line of waiting trucks at a warehouse in Ang Thong. Local residents expressed suspicion, as the movement of the rice came as farmers were demanding payment for rice sold to the government

BANGKOK: -- Long-overdue government subsidy payments to farmers under the rice-pledging scheme will begin next week, caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday.

Yingluck said details about the amounts to be paid would be revealed later.

Speaking at the office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence, her interim office, Yingluck said the Finance Ministry and relevant agencies had informed her the payments would be made.

The government owes about Bt130 billion to farmers, who have reacted angrily to the payment delay and are travelling to Bangkok to protest. There have been a number of loans totalling millions of baht made available previously from several resources, including small and medium-enterprise banks, while other loans have been granted to millers.

Yingluck said the government's ability to pay farmers was the result of the Finance Ministry’s efforts, and not the result of loans from financial institutions.

Deputy Finance Minister Benja Louichareon said the money - the amount was not specified - had been borrowed partly from the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC).

Benja said the loan was secured under a Cabinet approval, dated September 23, 2013, and the Finance Ministry had provided financial resources to guarantee it.

She said that the Cabinet approval was legal and actionable but a House dissolution had made commercial banks hesitant to approve loans.

A group of 50 farmers has launched a class action against Yingluck and five former and current ministers, the BAAC, the Commerce Ministry and the state-owned Public Warehouse Organisation demanding more than Bt19 million in damages for non-payment subsidies under a scheme initiated by the Pheu Thai-led government.

A lawyer representing the farmers, Rat Netiwan, said another 100-plus farmers would join the action by Monday and file civil lawsuits against those responsible.

Meanwhile, a large number of farmers from 20 northeastern provinces are planning to gather at Lam Takhong Dam in Nakhon Ratchasima and head to Bangkok to protest outside the Finance Ministry. A protest leader, Praphas Chomparkkliang, said Northeast-based farmers would not take aid money offered by the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee because they did not want to be dragged into the political war.

Ang Thong Governor Pawin Chamniprasart said he had no authority to look into mysterious night-time deliveries of rice in and out of a warehouse in Ang Thong, as it was likely privately-owned and likely not part of the rice-pledging scheme.


-- The Nation 2014-02-14

[TVGerry]

The farmers will only believe you once the money is in their hands. You've lied to them about the payments far too often for them to believe you again. And if you lie to them again, I expect them to escalate their protests next week.

[Red Snake]

The check is in the mail. No really it is.

[NeverSure]

The government owned Ag Bank again. Lordy I wonder how deep into this the Ag Bank is. The stories keep changing, but if the worse case scenarios are to be believed, this will make it about 1 trillion baht, secured by way overpriced and rotting rice.

And notice she said payments will begin next week. How much?

[Thailand]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

[TVGerry]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

If.

[thesetat2013]

With the auction only netting 1 billion and they need 130 billion i wonder how many farmers will be appeased nexr week.

That is if that money ever makes it to the farmers

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[whybother]

If this loan was secured under cabinet approval from September, why has it taken so long to pay the farmers.

Sent from my phone ...

[rogerdee123]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

If it's true ... Suthep and everyone else only has to see (or try to see .. as PTP will try to hide it) where the money comes from ... and add this issue to the other lawsuits etc.

[tominbkk]

Did she promise that she will step down if they don't pay?

Edited February 14, 2014 by tominbkk

[Yunla]

It won't save PTP either way. Trust is like a delicate vase, if you break it into pieces sure you can glue the pieces together slowly - but it will always have the cracks in it forever, it will always be a cracked vase and not the original perfect vase. Trust is certainly gone in this particular scandal, and it will remain gone in the future.

[tominbkk]

The saddest thing is that even if they pay the farmers everything they owe tomorrow, they have wasted so much money and the farmers are no closer to being self sufficient than they were 5 years ago. Think of how all that money wasted could have been used to teach and implement new agricultural techniques and crops diversification. Instead PTP has created an army of destitute farmers who are even more dependent on handouts from the government just to survive.

SHAME on you Thaksin and Yingluck. You have failed your people.

Edited February 14, 2014 by tominbkk

[chainarong]

Former Prime Minister and Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra put the money where your mouth is , deliver the money to all the farmers, not just the favorite few.

[PaullyW]

"Yeah, I sent the check already. You didn't get it yet?"

"No, I didn't get it yet."

"Ok, let me check with the mail. Sometimes they are slow. I can't believe you didn't get it yet."

[notmyself]

Ang Thong Governor Pawin Chamniprasart said he had no authority to look into mysterious night-time deliveries of rice in and out of a warehouse in Ang Thong, as it was likely privately-owned and likely not part of the rice-pledging scheme.

Likely? Ang Thong Governor Pawin Chamniprasart should only have to ask his minions if they are or they are not.

This could be a smoking gun my friends. On the illegal side it was always going to be a problem shifting it. Illegal trade goes on all the time in banking where it is electronic and gem stones which can be easily concealed. Eighteen million tonnes of rice just cannot pass like a ship in the night, no way. It does make one wonder what all this rice shipping being done at the dead of night is all about.

[dru2]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

Is that the best you can do? Pathetic.

[Bluespunk]

"Yingluck said details about the amounts to be paid would be revealed later."

So not paying the full amount then?

[bikkalad]

With Intrest ????

[cloudhopper]

I wonder if the resources provided by the financial ministry to back this deal are cotton and ink? No doubt the FX markets will be watching over the coming weeks should this plan actually materialize.

[bubblegum]

Time to bookmark this threat

[Thailand]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

Is that the best you can do? Pathetic.

Really great response to a fairly simple post relating to what may happen IF the payments are made, take a lot of time and thought to come up with it did it?

[worgeordie]

So where has the money come from, printing presses been working

overtime? Mr.T opened his wallet ?(that would never happen,he just

uses other people money,never his own)

regards Worgeordie

[sam sen]

thai's love to talk the talk but often, ultimately, end up unable to deliver and look stupid or inept. then they have to lie to save face and end up looking even stupider and more inept.

i hope it comes off, but as my old boss would say JFDI 'just f*cking do it'

[meatboy]

promised jan 15th.

promised feb.15th.

2015.

[JRSoul]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

Is that the best you can do? Pathetic.

Really great response to a fairly simple post relating to what may happen IF the payments are made, take a lot of time and thought to come up with it did it?

No, really it was pathetic. OTOH I suppose the corruption charges hanging over PTP are much more solid than a straw. Did you forget about those?

[LuckyLew]

If it is true it is really bad news for Suthep as the farmers were just about his last straw.

She has lied so ay time ... Do you honestly believe her?

[Lupatria]

The government owned Ag Bank again. Lordy I wonder how deep into this the Ag Bank is. The stories keep changing, but if the worse case scenarios are to be believed, this will make it about 1 trillion baht, secured by way overpriced and rotting rice.

And notice she said payments will begin next week. How much?

...and what will happen, if only half of the farmers will get paid? Creating first and second class farmers would cause many more problems.

[edwinchester]

How many 'next week' have there been since last October?

If ever there was proof of 'You can tell when a politician is lying, their lips move' it is this sorry 5 month systematic trail of deception.

[tomacht8]

"Sacks of rice are readied for night-time loading onto a long line of waiting trucks at a warehouse in Ang Thong.
Local residents expressed suspicion, as the movement of the rice came as farmers were demanding payment for rice sold to the government."

"Ang Thong Governor Pawin Chamniprasart said he had no authority to look into mysterious night-time deliveries of rice in and out of a warehouse in Ang Thong, as it was likely privately-owned and likely not part of the rice-pledging scheme."

Money one can easily carry in suitcases back and forth.

With rice it is not such easy.

No transport or shipping papers?

Maybe thieves at work?

“likely not part of the rice-pledging scheme.”

What is going on there?

[thaimat]

The saddest thing is that even if they pay the farmers everything they owe tomorrow, they have wasted so much money and the farmers are no closer to being self sufficient than they were 5 years ago. Think of how all that money wasted could have been used to teach and implement new agricultural techniques and crops diversification. Instead PTP has created an army of destitute farmers who are even more dependent on handouts from the government just to survive.

SHAME on you Thaksin and Yingluck. You have failed your people.

Wasn't creating (continuing, actually) an "army of destitute farmers who are even more dependent on handouts from the government just to survive" the whole point?