TDRI says Yingluck’s rice pledging scheme causes almost a trillion baht loss

BANGKOK: -- Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) says the rice-pledging scheme implemented by the Yingluck government during 2011-2014 has so far caused 660 billion baht loss to the state.

But it says the loss could reach a trillion baht on assumption that the remaining 17 million tons of rice in the stocks are sold out in the next 10 years.

TDRI researcher Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn said in his research on corruption involving the implementation of the rice pledging scheme from 2011 to 2014 that the scheme was considered the highest market intervention scheme in history in which the government had spent up to 980 billion baht to buy up to 54.4 million tons of rice or 53% of total rice output from farmers.

The research revealed that 1.77-1.78 million farmers from total 3.5-3.6 million farmers joining the scheme for the 2012-2013 harvest season.

A total of 826 rice mills and 1,685 warehouses also joined the scheme.

The scheme had 20 rice inspectors.

By end of October 31 this year, it was found that 85% of rice in the stocks have lower quality than normal standard. This low quality rice resulted in the loss of 660 billion baht to the state from the pledging scheme.

He said that if taking into account of the assessment of the remaining 17 million tons of rice in the stocks that could be released in the market within the 10-year period, the loss could jumped 300 billion baht more to 960 billion baht.

He said in the research that the rice-pledging scheme had brought about damages to the societies rather than advantages to farmers and consumers of an estimated 123 billion baht.

Meanwhile farmers joining the scheme obtained additional 296 billion baht in direct revenues. But after the combination of both direct and indirect revenues from the scheme, farmers obtained 561 billion baht in revenues.
But farmers who were benefitted from the scheme were mostly rich and medium earning farmers, rather than poor and low income farmers.

Dr Nipon said the rice-pledging scheme also had 585 billion baht of economic rents or 41% of GDP that resulted in relevant people to seek this special profits from investment in the scheme and was tantamount to extravagantly spend national resources that would obstruct economic growth.

He identified higher cost of rice planting, higher use of irrigation water than the water management plan of the Royal Irrigation Department that will become a water shortage problem for this year.

(Photo : Thai PBS File)

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/tdri-says-yinglucks-rice-pledging-scheme-causes-almost-trillion-baht-loss/

-- Thai PBS 2014-11-05

Not bad for a scam positioned as "self-financing' and meant to help poor farmers. Allegedly that is.

The naysayers ( such as myself) knew the numbers were going to be

bad , but had no idea would be this bad. I look forward to General

Prayut putting together a forensic accounting team, and figure out

exactly where all the money went. Should be easy to track

who the government money went to .

Oh sorry was daydreaming for a minute. As near as I can

tell no one is really punished here, as the ones on top doing the punishing

may be on the witness stand one day, so there is an understanding to

not really bring people to justice. This scheme was so large it went

all the way to the top of Thai society. So in the end no one will be punished,

well perhaps a few small millers will be thrown under the bus for show...

How dare those Cambodians and Burmese sneak their rice into this scheme and lower the quality.....

"By end of October 31 this year, it was found that 85% of rice in the stocks have lower quality than normal standard. This low quality rice resulted in the loss of 660 billion baht to the state from the pledging scheme."

If Thaksin Shinawatra wasn't behind this boondoggle, then who was?

This report is so full of holes it could be Swiss Cheese.

If Thaksin Shinawatra wasn't behind this boondoggle, then who was?

Wasn't he in Burma buying up large quantities of cheap Burmese rice to sell to the scheme as Thai rice?

Yingluck has to go to jail. Whatever the maximum sentence that can be imposed should be imposed. Her lack of oversight of the rice scheme is mind boggling!

Yingluck has to go to jail. Whatever the maximum sentence that can be imposed should be imposed. Her lack of oversight of the rice scheme is mind boggling!

She won't. I am also willing to bet they do not even bother to impeach her.

This junta seems to have lost the will to go after the corruption that plagues the kingdom, assuming they ever had it to begin with.

I suspect nothing is going to change and it will be back to business as usual real soon. If the good general was serious about reform, he would have jumped on the RTP over the Koh Tao debacle. That he did nothing, and even went so far as to praise them, pretty much says it all.

There have been so many different reports quoting so many different numbers that I no longer believe anything I read regarding this issue. I don't believe it is any longer possible to get to the truth.

And who determines if the rice is good, low or bad quality? What happens to the rice that's determined 'bad'. Who is to say that someone isn't fiddling the books at the moment, using the rice pledge scheme / management as an all to easy scapegoat for increasing losses?

There have been so many different reports quoting so many different numbers that I no longer believe anything I read regarding this issue. I don't believe it is any longer possible to get to the truth.

If you could muster up believing 25% then you also will see this is diabolical.

This report is so full of holes it could be Swiss Cheese.

Only PTP were there to bite the holes in the cheese.

Said the Military Junta...

Getting use to these stories and more to come.

A well planned coordinated campaign being orchestrated from above to try and turn the voting public against Yingluck and the PTP.

There can't be any protest as in another article martial law and meetings of groups of 5 is still banned.

All one way traffic at the moment with only legal resistance to the onslaught of bias media.

I don't think Yingluck will be impeached as she is far to popular and it would set the reconciliation process on its ear.

If no charges are brought soon then times up and hopefully she will stand again and let the people of Thailand show her detractors just how popular her and her party is.

Pretty sure PTP would have been happy to take plaudits had the scheme been successful and self financing as it was said to be at its inceoption.
So how is it right that when the scheme was disasterously administered and costs the country billions for those at the top to get off without any punishment because of political bickering.

The lack of accountability from top / mid / low level politicians in this country is a disgrace. When people go to jail for stealing food for their starving kids or for picking mushrooms on state land how is it then ethical to keep those who are actually stunting the nation's devcelopment to avoid any punishment whatsoever.
Real changes will be generations away. My kids won't even live to see the day, shocking

Getting use to these stories and more to come.

A well planned coordinated campaign being orchestrated from above to try and turn the voting public against Yingluck and the PTP.

There can't be any protest as in another article martial law and meetings of groups of 5 is still banned.

All one way traffic at the moment with only legal resistance to the onslaught of bias media.

I don't think Yingluck will be impeached as she is far to popular and it would set the reconciliation process on its ear.

If no charges are brought soon then times up and hopefully she will stand again and let the people of Thailand show her detractors just how popular her and her party is.

Yingluck PTP. self inflicted wounds...................so popular ??? NOW ???? get out more.

Not bad for a scam positioned as "self-financing' and meant to help poor farmers. Allegedly that is.

It must be like xmas for you rubl - now you can write 1000++ in your interminable posts about revolving rice funds............................

If Thaksin Shinawatra wasn't behind this boondoggle, then who was?

Wasn't he in Burma buying up large quantities of cheap Burmese rice to sell to the scheme as Thai rice?

Yes, of course he was..................................

Me get out more ginjag?

Mate I've just had 2 rounds of golf and been fishing over the last two days.

Not sit in front of the computer waiting for the big Y subject to come up so I can dominate the thread.

She really has done your head in mate.

Smell the roses for a change.

Your like a wigwam and a teepee .Your two tents!Tense if you didn't get it.

I predicted months ago this would cost near enough 1 trillion baht to the Thai people

Government money paid for rotten or substandard rice and that's what filled the warehouses, some of the warehouses never actually saw the rice that was bought with huge gaps in the storage supported by scaffolding

False G2G deals with bogus companies in China

The corruption involved in this scam/scheme is mind boggling and it happened with either government sanction or if it didn't they should have been aware - either way they are guilty and responsible

The warning signs were in August Sept and Oct of last year when the money dried up and payments to the farmers ceased - the rest is history

Then we have PTP trying to obtain a 2x trillion baht off budget loan to hide and offset the losses

They should all be locked up

Me get out more ginjag?

Mate I've just had 2 rounds of golf and been fishing over the last two days.

Not sit in front of the computer waiting for the big Y subject to come up so I can dominate the thread.

She really has done your head in mate.

Smell the roses for a change.

Your like a wigwam and a teepee .Your two tents!Tense if you didn't get it.

Were you fishing out the golf balls from the golf lake ??? Has this anything to do with the rice loss ???

Just been shopping at Tesco, and jogging round the lake---not getting fat fishing.-----you could be caught within-tent.

Some day in the not too distant future the boys at the IMF are going to have a good laugh at this accounting

Can you imagine how good you could have done with that money, such a waste !

Come on, let's get the audited figures instead of continuous speculation from people like Dr. Nipon or Dr. Warong. what happen to the big hoohah on corruption. Nothing heard so far. Yes there are losses but how much is still as unknown as the little green man in Mars.

That's approximately 16,600 Baht for every single person in the country; from baby up to granny, including me !!!

Lucky that extra 2 trillion loan was stopped from going through.

The Chinese Thai do it so well. I feel sorry for the poor Thai who have lost power of their contry and wealth

Not bad for a scam positioned as "self-financing' and meant to help poor farmers. Allegedly that is.

It must be like xmas for you rubl - now you can write 1000++ in your interminable posts about revolving rice funds............................

Interesting comment from a dyed-in-the-wool Thaksin apologist with more than 4000 posts mostly supporting the corrupt former regime.

Look in the mirror first.

WhizBang, on 05 Nov 2014 - 15:23, said:

BSJ, on 05 Nov 2014 - 14:47, said:

Yingluck has to go to jail. Whatever the maximum sentence that can be imposed should be imposed. Her lack of oversight of the rice scheme is mind boggling!

She won't. I am also willing to bet they do not even bother to impeach her.

This junta seems to have lost the will to go after the corruption that plagues the kingdom, assuming they ever had it to begin with.

I suspect nothing is going to change and it will be back to business as usual real soon. If the good general was serious about reform, he would have jumped on the RTP over the Koh Tao debacle. That he did nothing, and even went so far as to praise them, pretty much says it all.

They won't investigate too high up the corruption ladder, a few "small" fry maybe, but they would be far too scared, that when an elected government is in place, it might just investigate why the PM and his military "friends" have so much money, that can not be accounted for.

fab4, on 05 Nov 2014 - 16:05, said:

ginjag, on 05 Nov 2014 - 15:47, said:

The stuttering parrot, on 05 Nov 2014 - 15:42, said:

Getting use to these stories and more to come.

A well planned coordinated campaign being orchestrated from above to try and turn the voting public against Yingluck and the PTP.

There can't be any protest as in another article martial law and meetings of groups of 5 is still banned.

All one way traffic at the moment with only legal resistance to the onslaught of bias media.

I don't think Yingluck will be impeached as she is far to popular and it would set the reconciliation process on its ear.

If no charges are brought soon then times up and hopefully she will stand again and let the people of Thailand show her detractors just how popular her and her party is.

Yingluck PTP. self inflicted wounds...................so popular ??? NOW ???? get out more.

Will there ever come a time when you manage to construct a sentence in a grammatical way and abandon this staccato, stream of conciousness, over punctuated nonsense?

Don't feed the troll, if he doesn't get the attention he needs he'll go away..

Trillion baht later and Thai farmers are exactly where they were before... still poor...