Government allots extra Bt458 million for tapioca price guarantee
The Cabinet has approved an additional Bt458-million budget for the tapioca price guarantee scheme for fiscal year 2020-21 to help farmers suffering from drought and the Covid-19 situation, Deputy Government Spokeswoman Rachada Thanadirek said on Tuesday (April 28).
“The previously allotted budget of Bt9.6 billion would not be enough to help farmers whose exports, especially to China, have been hurt due to the Covid-19 outbreak,” she said. “The Cabinet therefore agreed to allot an additional Bt458 million to the price guarantee scheme.”
Ratchada added that so far the Ministry of Commerce has disbursed the price difference compensation to 391,452 tapioca farmers in five batches totalling Bt4.7 billion, or 50.46 per cent, of the total budget. “The compensation to be paid in the sixth to 12th batches will require around Bt5.1 billion while the scheme only has Bt4.67 billion left, therefore the granting of the additional budget was necessary,” she explained.
The additional budget of Bt458 million will be handled by the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives -- Bt448.227 million will be distributed to the farmers and Bt10.747 will be earmarked for the bank’s operational fee.