Panel 'ready to clarify figures on rice losses'

The committee’s calculation of losses from the scheme strictly complies with audit standards, the source said. The panel will hold meetings with other agencies to explain its formula and where the losses came from.

The figure is based on data from state agencies including those of the Commerce and Agriculture ministries and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.

While huge stocks still remain from the scheme, the pledging process for three harvest seasons of combined first and second crops has already ended, so the committee could make the calculation to close the scheme’s account by basing it on the outcome of the project to find the net result.

The committee first deducted the proceeds from rice sales from gross expenses. Then it calculated the value of the remaining inventoried rice, using the price of the already sold rice, and subtracted that from the first result to reach the net result, the source added.

The first face-to-face meeting of the National Rice Policy Committee and farmers was held in Phitsanulok yesterday to promote the pledging scheme after the government came under serious criticism over the failure of the project and the huge losses racked up since it was launched two years ago.

Led by Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, the mobile meeting on rice pledging was joined by about 1,200 farmers in the province. The government had allocated an additional Bt9 billion budget to publicise the event.

Boonsong said that because of many complaints, the government needs to meet farmers to build better understanding of the scheme. "I have never admitted that the project will turn a profit but only expect farmers will have better incomes," he said.

The government could finalise the loss figure in two to three years after releasing all pledged stocks, he said.

The government will this week analyse the source of the loss figure during the National Rice Policy Committee meeting, but did not know yet whether the chairman of the auditing commission will be invited to explain its loss figure.

Deputy Commerce Minister Natthawut Saikua said the government could not yet finalise the pledging figure even though the project has been going on for three years.

"Many organisations and persons have estimated the pledging loss from Bt80 billion to more than Bt260 billion. The gap is very big. Even the method of computing the figure [supplied by] former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij has not been identified. The government needs more time to finalise the loss figure," he said.

For instance, the World Bank estimates the losses at Bt115 billion a year, the TDRI projects Bt172 billion a year and the Finance Ministry pegs them at Bt70 billion-Bt100 billion. Honorary Rice Exporters Association president Chookiat Ophaswongse has come up with more than Bt260 billion.

In fact, the government is the agency directly responsible for rice pledging. The figure for the past year should be ready since the first two rounds of pledging from 2011 to 2012 are already over. The government is now proceeding with the third round of pledging, which is scheduled to wrap up in September.

According to the committee, governments linked to former PM Thaksin Shinawatra have inflicted cumulative losses of almost Bt400 billion on the country through the pledging schemes for rice and other crops, and the current government is responsible for a loss of up to Bt260 billion as of the end of last month. The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has overspent on the rice-pledging project – Bt661.22 billion instead of the budgeted Bt500 billion. Last Friday the Commerce Ministry and government agencies came out to reject the committee’s report that the project had run up huge losses of up to Bt260 billion. However, they failed to produce any evidence to substantiate their rebuttal.

Boonsong said the warehoused rice had still not been sold and the pledging project was still in operation, so the government cannot yet estimate the final loss. The figure can be tallied only three years after the end of the pledging scheme this September. The government must release all stockpiled rice so that it can know the exact cost of the pledging programme.