20 billion baht to be borrowed from the Min of Finance to pay to farmers

BANGKOK, 13 Mar 2014 (NNT) -- Mr. Surasak Riengkrue, Director General of the Department of Foreign Trade, has revealed that he has signed a request to borrow 20 billion baht from the Ministry of Finance to be paid to farmers who are waiting for the money the government owed them under the rice pledging program.

The Director General said the request document has been forwarded to the Finance Ministry to finalize, estimating the fund would be available and readied for distribution within a couple of days.

Mr. Surasak indicated that the borrowing plan followed the Cabinet’s decision which designated his department to borrow the money from the government’s central fund. He said that as the proposed amount is just made under a standard borrowing deal, the money, once available, can be directly transferred to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives for distribution to the farmers.

The Director General also expressed his confidence that the government would be able to return the borrowed sum to the Finance Ministry within the May 31st timeframe set by the Election Commission, saying the amount would be compensated by the money earned from selling the stockpiled rice.


-- NNT 2014-03-13

REQUEST, only. misleading headline.

He made a request, that doesn't mean it was agreed too.

They have made similar announcements in the last several months,

the request have not been agreed to, or rescinded quickly if they were.

Just one more announcement predicated on wishful thinking of a care taker minister.

so why didnt they do this weeks ago, seems that the ptp are making it up as they go, no one has any real idea of anything financial at all, it is all guess work, pathetic bunch of losers that need to be removed from office before they cause anymore major financial blunders.

Horsesh_t.

He has a snowballs chance in hell of selling 20 billion baht worth of stockpiled rice in two months.

Is this the 20 Billion that the EC said was OK to borrow, or is this another 20 Billion they need?

Is this the 20 Billion that the EC said was OK to borrow, or is this another 20 Billion they need?

It would seem the first, the 20 billion the EC OK-ed.

Note that with the date of 31st of May for return of those 20 billion and with the government selling rice 'earning' less than 10 billion a month, it would seem that any of the additional payments to farmers and others need to way till after the 31st of May. Note that the government indicated they'd like to borrow 130 bililon. All in all it would seem that around end of this year with the rice stocks sold out the BAAC will be stuck with a 700++ billion Baht deficit which was guaranteed by the government AKA the taxpayer

If they can sell 20 billion Bahts worth of stockpiled rice by May why do they need to borrow any money ? More lip service as usual and if they can't say anything useful then stay silent would be the best ploy. They just love to open their mouths and put their foot right in it.

I don't think a caretaker government can borrow anything , let alone 20million BHT and if It can, there is now a 20 million black hole in the treasury funding's to be found, under a democracy, this would be met with howls of disapproval from the opposition and financial institutions , no sensible Administration would pulled this on , this is desperation in the extreme.

Like sands through the hourglass,so are the days of our lives..........the dreary saga goes on and on.

Come on Mr Kitty, don’t be so stingy, give them more.

I wonder do the farmers realise that it is taking roughly 1 month to sell about baht 7 billion worth of rice - that being the case it's going to take almost 20 months to sell enough to pay the farmers what they are currently owed and that's even if the rice in storage is sellable - if I was a buyer I'd be demanding the fresh stuff, then there's this years crop

.........how many times over have they borrowed 20 B.....and still not paid the farmers.....???

.........how many times over have they borrowed 20 B.....and still not paid the farmers.....???

as many times that Suthep has allegedly proposed a 'final' push.

C'mon General, get on with it. Off with their heads. Enough is enough for crying out loud.

This will be very interesting for the Finance Minister. He maybe facing jail time if he did not due diligence before approving any loan. As the ability for the Commerce Ministry to pay back the loan is highly questionable. The responsible thing to do for any Finance minister to do is make sure the loan can actually be paid back. With money from rice sell going to the farmers first, will there be any left to pay the loan back. Also, most borrowing require that the collateral be inspected, I am assuming that the rice is the collateral that will be used to pay the money back. So why haven't any one asking the government for the complete inventory of rice so that an estimated value can be determined.

I think for any kind of a loan, that is the first step into any responsible lending. Otherwise, that can open up a whole criminal investigation against any lender. Misappropriation of funds.

Everything you read or hear about this fiasco is BS. What happened to all the farmers that were coming to Bangkok on their tractors but turned back with the promise of payment the following week. Did they get paid.

I don't think a caretaker government can borrow anything , let alone 20million BHT and if It can, there is now a 20 million black hole in the treasury funding's to be found, under a democracy, this would be met with howls of disapproval from the opposition and financial institutions , no sensible Administration would pulled this on , this is desperation in the extreme.

I assume this is because they are borrowing from within the government and not from outside.

Is this the 20 Billion that the EC said was OK to borrow, or is this another 20 Billion they need?

It would seem the first, the 20 billion the EC OK-ed.

Note that with the date of 31st of May for return of those 20 billion and with the government selling rice 'earning' less than 10 billion a month, it would seem that any of the additional payments to farmers and others need to way till after the 31st of May. Note that the government indicated they'd like to borrow 130 bililon. All in all it would seem that around end of this year with the rice stocks sold out the BAAC will be stuck with a 700++ billion Baht deficit which was guaranteed by the government AKA the taxpayer

Can't you see the dubious nature surrounding this 20 Bn baht loan from the central fund?

This is the money the EC allowed on condition it was all paid back with rice sales from the stockpiles by May? (itself an almost impossible task).

A week ago this was permitted by the EC, the money has not been paid out yet. Why are the Finance Ministry sitting on it and not paying it out to the farmers? What are they doing with that 20 Bn that nobody can see??

The normal channel for flow of funds is from the Finance Ministry directly to the BAAC for disbursement... So why is it all of a sudden flowing through the Ministry of Foreign Trade when this is clearly a domestic issue and nothing to do with foreign trade? Is some of this going to plug financial holes in that department??????

Everything is fishy about this 20Bn loan. I have a feeling this money is being siphoned off as we speak with a negligible amount ending up in farmer's hands.

Surely the EC must be concerned about what is happening with this money.

The EC seem very incompetent about this.. I was very uncomfortable with their decision to allow this loan in the first place. They should not have sanctioned that this government are allowed to touch a single baht for a scheme that is under investigation of fraud.

Seems to me it is still happening with this particular money.

Why didn't the EC lay down specific conditions that this money be moved directly to the BAAC within 48 hours of the loan being signed off????

If this money has found the same fate as the other 700 Bn baht known to be missing, then the EC has put itself in a position of accountability for anything that happens to that money because of their incompetence.

In a few months, Yingluck will be laughing at the EC from Dubai when she reads the EC directors have been sacked for falling into the Thaksin regime's trap to steal even more while in caretaker role........ you couldn't make it up.

Edited March 13, 201412 yr by PepperMe

I don't think a caretaker government can borrow anything , let alone 20million BHT and if It can, there is now a 20 million black hole in the treasury funding's to be found, under a democracy, this would be met with howls of disapproval from the opposition and financial institutions , no sensible Administration would pulled this on , this is desperation in the extreme.

Your above reply is non-sensical, a caretaker government has the duty to take "care" of the country during its stay into government.

If the country needs money in order to terminate major problems then the caretaker government is authorized to borrow money in order to solve those problems.

Since there is currently no official government the "caretakers" must take "care" of the country, otherwise matters could become catastrophic for the country and the public.

Again, the former Yingluck cabinet have the mistaken impression that they can simply will anything to happen. Nothing has changed in the Pheu Thai mindset. Absolutely nothing.

Sounds like they're attempting to follow the path of the US and EU where magic money is created under the title "Quantitative Easing," rather than the more generic term, "debasing the currency" by printing whatever you need or just pushing numbers about on some computers.

Hold onto your physical gold! Farang economic nonsense is coming!

Today, on those 20 billion Baht:

"caretaker PM and MoC Niwatthamrong said the government will start to pay the 20 billion baht it borrowed from its contingency budget through the BAAC from next Monday."