Thailand to sell stockpiled rice at market prices

Govt accepts it will lose on rice

Published: 7 Mar 2013 at 11.54
Online news: News

The government will have to sell off its rice stockpile amassed under the rice pledging scheme at market prices, PM's Office Minister Nawatthamrong Boonsongpaisan admitted on Thursday.

The government will have to take a big loss on the sale, because pledging prices were set much higher than the market price, he said.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra recently assigned Mr Nawatthamrong to oversee the rice pledging scheme and ensure that taxpayer funding for the programme does not exceed 500 billion baht per year.

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joa
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Discussion 33 : 07 Mar 2013 at 21.0233
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simply amazingly disgusting corrupt and evil greed at its best; how many robbers will go to jail? because it is a modern robbery no?
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ATNN
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Discussion 32 : 07 Mar 2013 at 20.4132
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Wow - 140 billion baht. Imagine if you used that money to actually empower people with skills so they themselves could diversify their economic activity and make more money, instead of vote-buying scams? Then again, an educated entrepreneurial population would be the salt to Peua Thai, the slug.
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koolbreez
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Discussion 31 : 07 Mar 2013 at 20.0231
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The government to government sales have to be secret, and they are sensitive (if they even exist), or it will be found out that the sales are breaking world trade organization anti-dumping laws I speculate. I think someone has been promised rice at a real cheap price, and does not want the rest of the world to know.

Is it considered mentally ill for someone to keep doing the same thing the same way, and every time expecting different results? This rice scam..er scheme was tried before, and the same results happened. Is it a healthy mind that does it the same way again, and expects different results?
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Renaissance
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Discussion 30 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.5830
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The Boss's populist promises have all had negative effects or wasted huge sums of money. The Thais have been fooled well and truly, and only they can say who has lost face the most. But I expect that the farmers and the million PT supporters in BKK will continue to worship their hero. The Boss will only have taken this decision because if he hadn't, it would have affected his chances of getting home whitewashed. When will the Thais wake up to how they are being taken advantage of and deceived while the queue of certain people laughing all the way to the bank gets longer?
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whatajoke
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Discussion 29 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.5029
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Considering the scale of the loss, Thaksin's obituary (not suggesting anything here btw) would start to read a bit like Hugo Chavez's.
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whatajoke
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Discussion 28 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.4828
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If all the 'extra' money (ie the 350 billion) was passed on directly to the poor farmer, all 1 million of them, it would be more economical for them not to bother farming rice at all, they would be swimming in money. 350,000 divide by 1 (lop six naughts off), you do the math. So, the question of the century is: Where has all the money gone! I'd love to hear that one discussed in the red shirt village meetings. never mind the tax payer, the rural poor have been cheated, cheated, cheated.
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djay
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Discussion 27 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.2727
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So the government is going to dump all of this rich into the market, and the price is going to stay the same. Learn something new every day here, but I guess all of those economics classes I took had it wrong. I will just have to write my university and tell them I want my money back.
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bluebkk
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Discussion 26 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.1726
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Unbelievable.... the red propaganda has not a SINGLE comment on this scam....over 400 BILLION theft from the Thai taxpayers....???? And then they will shout against a coup??? If ever there is a coup it will be a billion times deserved one!!
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john49
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Discussion 25 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.1325
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'The government will have to take a big loss on the sale'

Wrong-does anyone really think this money is not taxpayer money. What government
people are actually losing money on this scheme?
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Worzel
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Discussion 24 : 07 Mar 2013 at 19.1324
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Disc 29 djjp - actually is tax payers mostly clustered in Bangkok paying for it.
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