Ministry race to pay Thai rice farmers

[webfact]

RICE PLEDGED
Ministry race to pay farmers
Petchanet Pratruangkrai


Tanusak Lekuthai, caretaker deputy finance minister

BANGKOK: -- The Finance Ministry is rushing to raise funds to pay farmers for their pledged rice, while the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives has found through a survey that farmers are using their credit cards for investment and are seeking other occupations while waiting for their money.

The Commerce Ministry has already returned Bt20 billion to the Finance Ministry that it had borrowed from the central budget to make some of the payments that are overdue under the rice-pledging scheme.

Tanusak Lekuthai, caretaker deputy finance minister, said yesterday that the ministry had been going ahead with payments to farmers. It is seeking possible ways, including borrowing, to tap the Bt11-billion farmers assistance fund. The fund, which may receive Bt9 billion more deposits from local administrative organisations, is expected to close down by month's end.

"The Constitutional Court and the National Anti-Corruption Commission insist on the remaining 26 Cabinet ministers' full authority for administration. Therefore, we will call a meeting of management of the ministry and state-run financial institutions on Monday. An urgent task is to find ways to raise Bt70 billion to Bt80 billion for rice-pledging farmers," he said.

There has not yet been a discussion between the Finance and Commerce ministries on the planned request for an additional injection from the central budget.

Luck Wajananawat, BAAC's president, plans to inform the bank's committee of the status of the farmers assistance fund on Monday.

About 800,000 farmers have been paid for pledged rice worth Bt110 billion. About 720,000 farmers are still waiting for about Bt82 billion.

If the fund raises Bt10 billion, there may be about Bt70 billion remaining for the Finance Ministry to come up with. All payments to pledging farmers are expected to be completed by late this year or early next year.

There may be concerns about the interest burden, as it could be higher than normal if the BAAC has to issue bonds. Another concern is redemptions, which may not be in line with the bonds' maturities, as payments to farmers may have to wait for rice sales.

According to the survey conducted by the BAAC's research centre, to finance expenses for growing rice in April, 65.7 per cent of farmers in the scheme charged them on their credit card, 59.1 per cent used borrowings and 28.5 per cent used their savings.

While waiting for rice-pledging payments, 30.7 per cent of the farmers in the scheme generated income from sideline work, 28.5 per cent used borrowings and 21.9 per cent used savings.

Farmers have urged the government to speed up rice-pledging payments and the BAAC to lower interest rates and extend debt-repayment periods, the survey said.

Central budget

Surasak Riangkrul, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the Commerce Ministry should be able to get some money allocated from the central budget to help make overdue payments to farmers because it can repay the debt ahead of schedule.

The department can bargain to sell about 207,000 tonnes of rice out of 450,000 tonnes offered at an auction on Wednesday. Eight bidders have won by offering good prices to the ministry.

The department will soon seek approval from caretaker Commerce Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan to sell this stock.

Yesterday, 18 traders joined the Commerce Ministry's auction of 220,174 tonnes of rice in the 11th round of bidding via the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (Afet) this year.

The prices they quoted were better than previous bids as the local market is short of rice.

The turnout has encouraged the Commerce Ministry to schedule another tender in the futures market for 200,000 tonnes of rice on May 30.

Yanyong Phuangrach, caretaker deputy commerce minister, said the ministry would continue to sell rice via the futures market this year to release more rice from the inventory.


-- The Nation 2014-05-16

[Chupup]

Yes. Sure

Sent from my Z130 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[NongKhaiKid]

Rushing to raise funds ? Oh Please !

[PatOngo]

Ministry race to pay Thai rice farmers

Such haste...........This will leave them breathless!

[jcb2001]

Too late, the damage has already been done.

[edwinchester]

'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.

Absolutely speechless!

Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

[Crushdepth]

Rushing to pump out PR while the moribund government sinks beneath the waves.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[winstonc]

'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.

Absolutely speechless!

Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

hope they remember this come voting time ed.. its just so wrong in every way..

[edwinchester]

'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.

Absolutely speechless!

Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

hope they remember this come voting time ed.. its just so wrong in every way..

Wifeys family have always been Democrat supporters.

Here in the village until late last year the farmers would only vote PT saying the Dems had never done anything for them.

Since then there has been a noticeable hardening of opinion against PT although whether this will translate into votes against is anyones guess.

[rubl]

I wasn't aware that the Constitutional Court and the National Anti-Corruption Commission had ]b\insisted[/b] on the remaining 26 Cabinet ministers' full authority for administration.

Furthermore having repaid 20 billion loaned from the Central Budget the government want to borrow again from it?

In December there was talk about borrowing 130 billion, it would seem that that in six months the government managed to 'find' 50 - 60 billion. Borrowed here, borrowed there and sales of rice.

I guess all still too busy to provide details on the RPPS whch started 2011-10-07?

[IMA_FARANG]

Rushing to raise funds ? Oh Please !

-----------------

Yes, haven't we heard this one before?

Put on your rubber waders, boys, the sh_t is getting deeper in here.

[NongKhaiKid]

'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.

Absolutely speechless!

Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

hope they remember this come voting time ed.. its just so wrong in every way..

Wifeys family have always been Democrat supporters.

Here in the village until late last year the farmers would only vote PT saying the Dems had never done anything for them.

Since then there has been a noticeable hardening of opinion against PT although whether this will translate into votes against is anyones guess.

Interesting point. I live in a very red area but now there are no banners, posters etc. but it's hard to read anything into it.

Peer pressure come an election ?

[coobah666]

Simple solution get Mr money bags (Thaksin) to pay for it . It was his idea to start with,and the total money owed to the farmers would only be loose change for him

Edited May 16, 2014 by coobah666

[chainarong]

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'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.
Absolutely speechless!
Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

Well it is disgraceful and to make it more so they have no authority to raise any loans , unless authorized by the EC

[chainarong]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.
Absolutely speechless!
Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

hope they remember this come voting time ed.. its just so wrong in every way..

Wifeys family have always been Democrat supporters.
Here in the village until late last year the farmers would only vote PT saying the Dems had never done anything for them.
Since then there has been a noticeable hardening of opinion against PT although whether this will translate into votes against is anyones guess.

I thought the democrats had a far better system for all farmers, when they where holding the fort, pre Coup days.

[JesseFrank]

Don't we hear similar stories on a weekly base since October 2013 ?

[edwinchester]

'payments to be completed late this year or early next year'.

Absolutely speechless!

Father in law and the guy who rents my wifes paddy cropped last October and it is disgraceful the manner in which they have been let down.

hope they remember this come voting time ed.. its just so wrong in every way..

Wifeys family have always been Democrat supporters.

Here in the village until late last year the farmers would only vote PT saying the Dems had never done anything for them.

Since then there has been a noticeable hardening of opinion against PT although whether this will translate into votes against is anyones guess.

I thought the democrats had a far better system for all farmers, when they where holding the fort, pre Coup days.

The Dems subsidy was paid directly to the farmer so far less scope for corruption. One has to wonder why it wasn't continued by PT. If they genuinely wanted to increase the farmers living standards then the simplest way would have been to increase the direct subsidy.

[khwaibah]

How does a F1 race car move whose fule tank is empty. ?

[ginjag]

RACE TO PAY ???

Put it in Olympic terms then. 100mt--200mt-400mt -800mt-1500mt-5000mt-10000mt- MARATHON yes. in the stadium we have spectators waiting for the ministry to enter, BUT wait wait------not even tomorrow because only tortoises are running and they all have cramp.

[Robby nz]

The department can bargain to sell about 207,000 tonnes of rice out of 450,000 tonnes offered at an auction on Wednesday. Eight bidders have won by offering good prices to the ministry.

Just what does that mean ? "The department can bargain".

It would appear that it could mean that 8 bidders actually bid on about 200,000 tons of the rice on offer, with good, but not really good enough prices and the department will now attempt to get them to raise their offer.

Whatever, there will be less than half of the rice on auction actually sold, at the most.

The department will soon seek approval from caretaker Commerce Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan to sell this stock.

It would also seem that they have to get permission to actually sell the rice, presumably if and when a price is agreed on.

This of course will make the caretaker minister who is now also the appointed caretaker PM responsible for any cock ups.

Don't know how he's going to like that, but I suppose they have to find him first now he has run off.

[Lupatria]

What happened to the good old 'payment next week' phrase?

[issanaus]

The department can bargain to sell about 207,000 tonnes of rice out of 450,000 tonnes offered at an auction on Wednesday. Eight bidders have won by offering good prices to the ministry.

Just what does that mean ? "The department can bargain".

It would appear that it could mean that 8 bidders actually bid on about 200,000 tons of the rice on offer, with good, but not really good enough prices and the department will now attempt to get them to raise their offer.

Whatever, there will be less than half of the rice on auction actually sold, at the most.

The department will soon seek approval from caretaker Commerce Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan to sell this stock.

It would also seem that they have to get permission to actually sell the rice, presumably if and when a price is agreed on.

This of course will make the caretaker minister who is now also the appointed caretaker PM responsible for any cock ups.

Don't know how he's going to like that, but I suppose they have to find him first now he has run off.

Of course they need permission because if they sell it at a loss they the difference is a public expense. While the rice is unsold then they can maintain the fiction of the historical cost and not recognise the losses and failure of the system. The case could be made that these unbudgeted losses should in a caretaker period be subject to the permission of the EC both on the basis of adding liabilities to any income government and unbudgeted expenditure for election purposes.

However the reality is that the sooner the rice is sold the better because it is a depreciating asset, has storage costs, there is an opportunity cost associated with the funds being tied up; and the multiplier effect of not having that money supply in the Thai economy means that all the effects are amplified.

The failure to sell stocks at market prices in the past may have in the short run been to the political advantage of the PTP, but clearly has been disadvantageous in the longer run as well as hurting the economy and many Thai people

Edited May 16, 2014 by issanaus

[edwinchester]

What happened to the good old 'payment next week' phrase?

Mutated into 'maybe next month'.

[freezacrowd]

I don't know who make up the red shirts, where I live its not the farmers ,in Nong bua Lam Phu . They have had enough

[issanaus]

I don't know who make up the red shirts, where I live its not the farmers ,in Nong bua Lam Phu . They have had enough

It suits both of the political camps to continue to portray the "redshirts" in the context of the pre PTP era. The realities are different in 2014.

[bigbamboo]

The Rice Pledging Scheme...... a.k.a. Thailand's 'Great Leap Backwards' .

[mancub]

"
While waiting for rice-pledging payments, 30.7 per cent of the farmers in the scheme generated income from sideline work, 28.5 per cent used borrowings and 21.9 per cent used savings."

And the un-mentioned, remaining 18.9% contemplated suicide as their last option .

[marko kok prong]

More Bs,they may as well let Tat do these announcements,they would make about the same sense.

[Morch]

What happened to the good old 'payment next week' phrase?

Judging by the pic in the OP, I'd say it was dropped in favor of "Pull my finger".

[Robby nz]

18 bidders took part in AFET's rice auction yesterday

BANGKOK, 16 May 2014 (NNT) – The Commerce Ministry revealed that the auction of 200,000 tons of the government’s pledged rice through the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) has attracted 18 bidders.

Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said that the 11th AFET rice auction offered more than 130,000 tons of white rice with 5% moisture content. The auction prices offered a 2.40 - 3.88 baht discount from the market price tag. The bidding was also able to sell 4,000 tons of 100% class-2 Jasmine fragrant rice at a price lower than the street value by 4.70 - 4.80 baht per kilo.

The deputy minister said the previous 10 AFET rice auctions had successfully sold 588,000 tons of stockpiled rice worth 7 billion baht, while assuring that the Commerce Ministry would soon be able to achieve its goal of selling 1 million tons of pledged rice.

Meanwhile, Department of Foreign Trade Director General, Surasak Riengkrue, indicated that the Commerce Ministry has already returned 20 billion baht it had borrowed from the government’s central budget. He said the Ministry would wait for a new government to form before deciding whether it would raise another loan.

-- NNT 2014-05-16

They say that 130 K tons of white rice was offered.

Then that 4,000 tons of Jasmine rice was sold.

Would have thought if the white rice was sold they would have said so and not that it was offered.