Rice policy meets aim of raising prices for farmers: minister
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The government yesterday said it would proceed with its policy of subsidising rice crops, insisting that it had succeeded in pushing up prices.
However, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) said the government was still in arrears to the bank over the rice-pledging programme to the tune of Bt100 billion.
Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said the government would conduct more stringent inspections to address corruption complaints.
However, he said, “The government has no need to revise the policy and reduce the high subsidy rates, which push up prices.”
He accepted that corruption was a possibility, as there are 100 rice mills in the programme with more than a million farmers involved.
In addition, the government will cooperate more closely with the Customs Department and Finance Ministry to prevent rice from neighbouring countries entering the programme, he said.
As of Wednesday, 14.52 million tonnes of second-crop rice had entered the programme.
BAAC president Luck Wajananawat said the government was still in arrears to the bank because of the price-pledging programme, but would gradually pay off the debt.
The government paid the bank Bt30 billion last year and expects to pay Bt49 billion this year.
State bank BAAC finances the government’s rice-pledging scheme. The bank has borrowed Bt269 billion to finance the pledging policy for the 2012-13 harvest season, which started this month.
