BAAC hit for late pledging payments
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The Commerce Ministry's 1569 hotline has been flooded with complaints from farmers about late payment by the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives under the government's rice-pledging project.
A ministry source said yesterday that although complaints about rising prices of goods have eased this year, grievances over overdue pledging payments have surged.The delay resulted from the government’s lack of liquidity because the BAAC had not yet received funds due to it from the ministry
However, the situation is better now that the ministry has paid back to the BAAC some of the money the bank spent on the pledging project after the ministry gained Bt42 billion from selling pledged rice under government-to-government contracts.
The ministry has committed to returning Bt85 billion to the BAAC this year so that the bank has enough budget to continue the second year of the rice subsidy scheme. -
