NCPO helps rice farmers with cost cutting measures

[webfact]

NCPO helps rice farmers with cost cutting measures
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, July 7 -- After scrapping the rice-pledging programme sponsored by the now defunct government, and rice price guarantee scheme, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has ordered the Commerce Ministry to assist farmers by lowering rice production costs.

Effective since July 3, the price of chemical fertiliser has dropped by about Bt50 per sack while the price of insecticide was reduced between 5-10 per cent following the resolution by the Central Committee on Goods and Services Prices on recommended prices.

Prices of these products must also be clearly displayed and complaints on overcharging can be made with the Ministry’s Internal Trade Department or with the hotline number 1569.

Sellers have said they could reduce prices of the fertilizer and the insecticide but only in short-term because producers must import raw materials.

They insisted that prices have to based on market mechanisms.

Farmers are, of course, happy as they see their production costs have declined.

However, they are still worried on yielding prices and have asked the state to guarantee that rice prices stay between 8,000-9,000 per tonne in order to help them earn at least a slight profit.

Farmers have claimed that their production costs are between Bt4,000-5,000 per rai.

The government of Yingluck Shinawatra which was ousted in the May 22 military takeover introduced the rice-pledging scheme in which farmers were guaranteed to sell rice to the government at the maximum price of Bt15,000 per tonne, depending on the moisture content.

The scheme was scrapped by NCPO after the scheme was found to be marred by massive corruption. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-07-07

[jaidam]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

[khwaibah]

"Farmers have claimed that their production costs are between Bt4,000-5,000 per rai." Not if you have a faring in the house hold.

[webfact]

Farming cost cut to help farmers now on the go

BANGKOK: -- Farmers nationwide now rejoice after the Commerce Ministry sought cooperation from traders to lower fertiliser prices to help farmers to bring down high farming cost.

The move by the Ministry came after the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) scrapped both the rice-pledging programme of the Yingluck government and the price guarantee scheme of the previous Abhisit government and introduced the cost cutting scheme instead.

Under the cost cutting scheme initiative, the ministry’s Central Committee on Goods and Services Prices resolved to recommend that the price of chemical fertilisers and insecticides should be dropped to help farmer lower their farming cost.

Following the recommendations , traders have reduced chemical fertiliser prices by about 50 baht per sack while the price of insecticide was reduced between 5-10%.

The central committee also advised that orices of these products must also be clearly displayed, while farmers can lodge complaints on overcharging can be made with the Ministry’s Internal Trade Department or with the hotline number 1569.

Traders have said they could reduce prices of the fertilizer and the insecticide but only in short-term because producers must import raw materials. They also insisted that prices have to based on market mechanisms.

Farmers rejoiced the junta’s move to help lower their high farming cost but they are still worried on yielding prices.

They have asked the state to guarantee that rice prices stay at between 8,000-9,000 per ton in order to help them earn at least a slight profit.

Farmers have claimed that their production costs are between 4,000-5,000 baht per rai.

The government of Yingluck Shinawatra which was ousted in the May 22 military takeover introduced the rice-pledging scheme in which farmers were guaranteed to sell rice to the government at the maximum price of15,000 per ton, depending on the moisture content.

But the scheme was scrapped by NCPO after it was found to plagued with massive corruption.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/farming-cost-cut-help-farmers-now-go/


-- Thai PBS 2014-07-07

[djjamie]

Effective since July 3, the price of chemical fertiliser has dropped by about Bt50 per sack while the price of insecticide was reduced between 5-10 per cent

And that is how it should be done.

Let's hope the disabled people don't come out of the woodwork stating this will negatively affect them.

[Loles]

" The government of Yingluck Shinawatra which was ousted in the May 22 military takeover introduced the rice-pledging scheme in which farmers were guaranteed to sell rice to the government at the maximum price of Bt15,000 per tonne, depending on the moisture content. "

This was a great idea amateur Yingluck and you made happy also the Cambodian, Burmese and Lao farmers also who live close to the Thai border.

[aussieinthailand]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

[ramrod711]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

[Thai at Heart]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

[jaidam]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

"The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?"

You might want to email Forbes and tell them that Thaksin's brag that his govt sent him 30 billion baht since rice scam inception is a lie. Then we have Jatuporn's amazing amulet truck and Arisman(owner with his wife of Siam Indica- google the name in connection with the rice scam) and his new international airline fleet. So to recap, 800 billion baht of taxpayers funds have disappeared and a few redduns linked to the scam have become amazingly wealthy. Join the dots.

The stupidity that led to the scam is absolutely damning. Cast your mind back to when Thaksin dreamt it up. Did he not say that by Thailand withdrawing all rice sales for a few years will push up global rice prices and allow his rice scheme to turn a profit? Yes, he did. Was he roundly condemned at the time by all and sundry on TVF for such a ridiculous notion that was bound to be an unspeakable financial disaster. Yes, he was. Did a good few farmers commit suicide after realizing what had happened to them. Again, yes they did. Has Thailands rice industry been scuttled due to the scam? You betcha!

It's time to accept that this was no accident. It was borne out of greed, stupidity and a life of enjoying monopolies and corruption. Had the coup never ocurred we would not know the scale of the crime, but as it stands it looks like the general will unravel the money trail. Sorry if this investigation upsets you, but it is very much in the interest of all Thai citizens. You will just have to deal with it.

[lostsoul49]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

Get your red tinted, Thaksin signed glasses off.

Are you totally naive or what?

You start at the bottom and work up, and that is exactly what is happening if you hadn't been reading the latest reports... they are starting at the bottom. They will get everyone involved at that level and work their way up the line right to the top.

People are going to squeal like pigs to save their own bacon, and it will almost certainly end up pulling names out that you seem to want to believe are totally innocent.

Even if they don't get fingered as earning a baht from this (which they almost certainly made billions) there is still enough lies and deceit from minister level who said they already did all the checks and urged the NACC to check the stockpiles to prove it, while we are actually seeing massive discrepancies is enough to put them all in this together, and Yingluck at the top.

Their incompetence alone is worthy of a very stiff prison sentence as their lies etc acted as a cover up and gave the green light to continue with it.

There is a reason the PTP did everything to cling to power, it wasn't to protect democracy (that has never existed here) it was to protect the people who were at the top of the US consulate's 4th July party list.

For the record.... yes.... Blair, Brown, Bush and Obama should be in prison for a variety of reasons.

[Tatsujin]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

Stop making excuses for these people.

All should be held accountable, no matter which side, or what position they held, and at the very least those at the top were guilty of stupidity, gross negligence and lying and they should be held accountable for the resulting mess this country is in and the deaths that resulted from it.

Unlike you, I also believe that those at the top received a huge amount of cash from this and the other scams they perpetrated during the years they were in power. I'm hopeful over the coming months/years, that the money trail will lead right back to them and they will be punished for the complete <deleted> mess they made whilst personally increasing their bank balances an untold amount.

Jail time and seizing/recovery of assets to refund the losses incurred are the least that should happen.

[somo]

Farming cost cut to help farmers now on the go

BANGKOK: -- Farmers nationwide now rejoice after the Commerce Ministry sought cooperation from traders to lower fertiliser prices to help farmers to bring down high farming cost.

-- Thai PBS 2014-07-07

Oh Yeah - they are all dancing in the street around here.

What a joke - 50 Baht off the cost of a 900 Baht bag of fertilizer is nothing.

Just another propaganda excercise of no real value

As for trusting this thaipbs broadcaster is that another joke?

[firestar]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Correct. But can we please have an inquiry, and the same kind of scrutiny, on palm oil price fixing by our friends down south?

[Trouble]

So the rice pledging scheme of the Yingluck government and the price guarantee scheme of the Abhisit government, both schemes to win support of the rice farmers are history. Now the NCPO's new scheme is to make the suppliers of fertilizer and other products needed to produce rice pay for it. "Traders have said they could reduce prices of the fertilizer and the insecticide but only in short-term because producers must import raw materials. They also insisted that prices have to based on market mechanisms." It seems like only the traders/producers of these products have it right when they say let market mechanisms set the prices.

"Farmers rejoiced the junta’s move to help lower their high farming cost but they are still worried on yielding prices. They have asked the state to guarantee that rice prices stay at between 8,000-9,000 per ton in order to help them earn at least a slight profit." So bottom line is that the NCPO is figuring out their own scheme to pacify the rice farmers.

For all the criticism of the rice pledging scheme, we see that it was really no different than what the Abhisit government did or what the NCPO is trying to do now. Pacify the rice farmers and get their support. Only difference is that taxpayer money was used to buy rice in the Yingluck government hoping they could sell later while in Abhisit's program the market prices were regulated so the end user pays a higher price and in the NCPO they are trying to cut the profit of the suppliers and give it to the rice farmers. All these schemes end up being an artificial price support for something that should have the market forces deciding on prices. Any system that artificially manipulates these forces ultimately fails and someone pays for it. I guess it is a matter of who pays and where along the chain. Like someone else mentioned it also happening in the Palm Oil business and no doubt the rubber business. It is a global economy now and the nature of the beast is that you must compete or find something else to grow.

[Thai at Heart]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

"The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?"

You might want to email Forbes and tell them that Thaksin's brag that his govt sent him 30 billion baht since rice scam inception is a lie. Then we have Jatuporn's amazing amulet truck and Arisman(owner with his wife of Siam Indica- google the name in connection with the rice scam) and his new international airline fleet. So to recap, 800 billion baht of taxpayers funds have disappeared and a few redduns linked to the scam have become amazingly wealthy. Join the dots.

The stupidity that led to the scam is absolutely damning. Cast your mind back to when Thaksin dreamt it up. Did he not say that by Thailand withdrawing all rice sales for a few years will push up global rice prices and allow his rice scheme to turn a profit? Yes, he did. Was he roundly condemned at the time by all and sundry on TVF for such a ridiculous notion that was bound to be an unspeakable financial disaster. Yes, he was. Did a good few farmers commit suicide after realizing what had happened to them. Again, yes they did. Has Thailands rice industry been scuttled due to the scam? You betcha!

It's time to accept that this was no accident. It was borne out of greed, stupidity and a life of enjoying monopolies and corruption. Had the coup never ocurred we would not know the scale of the crime, but as it stands it looks like the general will unravel the money trail. Sorry if this investigation upsets you, but it is very much in the interest of all Thai citizens. You will just have to deal with it.

The 30bn was returned to him from the treasury. So far they have found less than 100,000 Mt missing. Out of a total purchased through the whole system of how much 75,000,000 Mt?

And you seriously believe that if the fraud was that enormous they would need to actually go an count the stuff physically?

[Thai at Heart]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

Stop making excuses for these people.

All should be held accountable, no matter which side, or what position they held, and at the very least those at the top were guilty of stupidity, gross negligence and lying and they should be held accountable for the resulting mess this country is in and the deaths that resulted from it.

Unlike you, I also believe that those at the top received a huge amount of cash from this and the other scams they perpetrated during the years they were in power. I'm hopeful over the coming months/years, that the money trail will lead right back to them and they will be punished for the complete <deleted> mess they made whilst personally increasing their bank balances an untold amount.

Jail time and seizing/recovery of assets to refund the losses incurred are the least that should happen.

I will wait to see. How the shins would have directly profited from this is way beyond my comprehension and I worked in agribusiness for a decade.

You can't just move bazillions of baht in and out of this country particularly if you have no exports.

[Thai at Heart]

The scheme was not "marred" by massive corruption. The scheme was started solely to buy an election and to enable the red elite billionaires(who pretended to be hard working poor folk, baulking against the establishment) to steal unprecedented amounts of taxpayers money. Marred by corruption suggests that the corruption was an unfortunate accident, which is blatantly false.

I would like to see this stolen 800 billion distributed among the farmers that unwittingly participated in the scam. Rather than carking around trying to get the BVI and Cayman, Montenegro etc banks to clarify the offshore Shin treasure haul, just seize and sell any and all Shin assets in Thailand. Cash,stocks,bonds, properties, wide-body jets, land, everything. I think the Shinawatras will be quite happy with such a deal, they have history in joyously bypassing the rule of law so long as others benefit, such as his war on drugs.

Instead of crying Oh the Shins Oh the Shins, take everything, Why not support the catching of those who actually were involved with the theft and resale and bogus numbers of tons or rice, ie millers and dealers, and call for their prosecution, that would be a balanced outcome rather than your suggestion.

Why not convict everyone who stole anything from the scheme? I have no problem with that. The person who introduced the scheme to buy votes, the person who claimed to be in charge, the one who appointed the various ministers that lied over and over about the funding etc. You know who I'm speaking of, dear Yingluck. Start at the top, ask her if she was merely incompetent or if she is a crook, because it can only be one or the other. Ask Kittirat if he was lying, over and over, when he said the funds were there for the farmers. The Shins were in this, created this, and you want to whitewash the entire thing so that they look like participants instead of creators, nice try.

The first 5 sets of people in your list, probably didn't get one baht out of the thing, but you think they are more worthy of punishment than miller and dealers who did?

Now I am all for political accountability, so by that token, I presume Blair and Brown should be thrown in the clink for runing the economy, Bush and Obama should be too, and the list goes on. Your political hatred is blinding you to the likely outcome that by the end of this, there will be little or no evidence that the top level of government profited personally at all from this, and that the money has been turned around in circles at local levels to fund their cronies.

So what do you think will be the reaction of the people if the only ones punished are at the top whilst the Merc and Ferrari driving local pooyais laugh all the way tot he bank?

Stop making excuses for these people.

All should be held accountable, no matter which side, or what position they held, and at the very least those at the top were guilty of stupidity, gross negligence and lying and they should be held accountable for the resulting mess this country is in and the deaths that resulted from it.

Unlike you, I also believe that those at the top received a huge amount of cash from this and the other scams they perpetrated during the years they were in power. I'm hopeful over the coming months/years, that the money trail will lead right back to them and they will be punished for the complete <deleted> mess they made whilst personally increasing their bank balances an untold amount.

Jail time and seizing/recovery of assets to refund the losses incurred are the least that should happen.

All good. Do you really think that in one month they are going to find transfers of money into Yinglucks accounts. This type of process would at least have to involve false invoicing, inter company transfers and the such.

They will need to investigate at lot deeper than they are. I go with the idea that Yingluck isn't half as stupid as you people think and that she probably didn't directly take a baht. You think she wants to go to jail.

They are going to find some dodgy exports and a couple of companies are going to be in trouble. The odds they find some piece of paper stating "pay Yingluck loadsawonga" are zero.

So unlike you, holding to one last tenet of a grown up society of innocent until proven otherwise, she's not guilty.

Until people on here grow up and realise that their isn't a political family anywhere in thailand that hasn't taken something corrupt or nepotistic and that they are all bent, you end up with this extreme reaction.

Its only by holding them all equally with contempt that a solution will be found