Rice-pledging budget must be replenished, says BAAC
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The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives says it has an adequate budget to continue the rice-pledging scheme until the end of the latest project, but beyond that, the government will either have to borrow more or accelerate its stockpile rel
BAAC executive vice president Boonthai Kaewkhantee said the bank would be able to fund the scheme until the end of September after the Public Debt Management Office provides the final amount of Bt40 billion to continuing the project until the end of this round.
“The government has spent a total of Bt500 billion for the rice-pledging projects since 2011. If it wants to continue the pledging policy, it needs to borrow or provide a new budget.”
He explained that the budget for the pledging project was separate from the bank’s liquidity. The BAAC still has good financial health with liquidity of more than Bt100 billion, lower than last year’s Bt200 billion because of withdrawals by government agencies.
Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom has instructed relevant agencies to investigate the losses due to the rice-pledging project before making a public announcement this week.
Boonsong has expressed worries over the losses after his ministry has returned Bt140 billion from its rice-stockpile releases to the Finance Ministry.
Deputy Commerce Minister Natthawut Saikua said Boonsong had ordered the ministry to investigate the rice-pledging budget after it was reported that the project had suffered losses of more than Bt260 billion. The ministry has previously insisted that it has plenty of rice in its stockpiles that could be sold and raise funds to continue the next phase of the pledging programme.
The Foreign Trade Department reported that the ministry had earned Bt61.8 billion from rice sales since February.
The ministry plans to return a total of Bt149 billion to the Finance Ministry this year: Bt14.11 billion in April, Bt12.62 billion in May, Bt13.64 billion in June, Bt13.06 billion in July, Bt11.61 billion in August, and Bt10.9 billion in September.
