Thai Cabinet approves Bt20b contingency budget for payment to farmers

BANGKOK, February 25 (TNA) - The Thai Cabinet has approved a contingency budget of 20 billion baht for payment to farmers who sold their grains to the official rice-pledging scheme. Deputy Government Spokesman Pakdiharn Himathongkham told a press conference of the Cabinet's resolution on Tuesday afternoon, explaining that it would take some two months for the Ministry of Commerce to sell pledged rice and the Ministry of Finance to issue a 100-billion-baht bond to raise money to pay for the pledged rice and the caretaker government needs to, thus, borrow about 20 billion baht from its contingency budget to pay farmers for the time being. Pakdiharn noted that after both ministries complete the tasks, money can be raised and later returned to the contingency budget. The caretaker government took the action because rice growers have long waited for their money after pledging their rice with the official rice-pledging scheme, leading to their protest and block roads in many provinces. The government received 10.97 million tonnes of rice pledged by farmers, but it has delayed in paying some 181 billion baht for the pledged rice to farmers who have received pledging documents. The state-run Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) has already paid 65.4 billion baht for 4.05 million tonnes of rice pledged by 517 farmers and the outstanding balance amounts to 115 billion baht. The Thai Ministry of Commerce expects to sell 80,000 tonnes of pledged rice per month and it should raise about 16 billion baht over the next couple of months. When combined with 100 billion baht to be raised with the Ministry of Finance’s newly-issued bond, the government will have 116 billion baht in about two months to pay affected rice farmers. Meanwhile, Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan acknowledged that the caretaker government needs to, however, seek an approval from the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) for the spending of the contingency budget and the money should reach farmers in a few days. According to the caretaker deputy prime minister, the total contingency budget exceeds 60 billion baht and when the rice payment is deducted, nearly 50 billion baht will remain and will be enough to cope with drought and other emergency cases in Thailand. (TNA)