Rice committee seeks write-off of losses from 'special purpose' sales

The National Rice Policy Committee aims to write off the government’s losses from selling rice at low prices for special purposes, adding up to about Bt7 billion since 2011.

After the committee’s meeting yesterday, Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said rice had been sold below market prices to help ease Thais’ cost of living and had been donated as humanitarian assistance to countries devastated by disasters. 

That money should be deducted from the total losses for the pledging project, said Niwatthumrong, also a deputy prime minister. The plan will be proposed to the Cabinet and the Finance Ministry for acknowledgement soon.

However, the committee has not yet finalised its estimate of total losses for the rice-pledging programme during the past two years. Spending on the scheme has run at about Bt330 billion a year on average. 

If any agency or person could calculate the loss figure, they should show it to the public so that the government could explain the cost more clearly, he said.

Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the government lacked liquidity to make payments to farmers because it was selling rice at prices much lower than market. The losses from this special purpose should not be counted.

The National Rice Policy Committee will ask for a budget of Bt6 billion to distribute to rice farmers who have not yet received payment from pledging in 2012-13 because of exceeding the limit of 22 million tonnes that was expected by the government. 

This amounts to about 450,000 tonnes. 

Farmers should not worry, as they should get their cheques within a few days, Yanyong said.

The committee will also ask for another Bt3 billion to pay farmers who missed the deadline of September 15 to pledge rice from the 2012-13 crop season. This will pay farmers who harvested their rice late, from September 16-30.

Former finance minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula yesterday told a forum on business ethics held by the Thai Chamber of Commerce that the pledging scheme was an expensive programme that did not make a serious improvement to income distribution to farmers. Based on figures for the 2012-13 programme, the government suffered a loss of about Bt205 billion while only Bt80 billion went to farmers. 

Pramon Sutivong, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said at the same event that a seminar on the rice-pledging scheme would be held next Tuesday, focusing on graft related to the project.

“Previously, we warned the government about corruption risks,” he said.