Financial losses incurred from rice subsidy schemes dating back to 2004 are likely to exceed the estimated 682 billion baht, says the Finance Ministry.
If rising depreciation and missing milled rice from warehouses are taken into account, the combined losses will be higher than the recent estimate, finance permanent secretary Rungson Sriworasat said yesterday.
The subcommittee overseeing accounting affairs of all rice subsidy schemes earlier estimated losses from buying 84 million tonnes of milled rice in the 15 schemes from 2004-14 amounted to 682 billion baht, with the Yingluck Shinawatra government's programme alone accounting for 518 billion.
But that estimate did not take into account depreciation or missing rice from warehouses inspected by a team working for PM's Office Minister ML Panadda Diskul.
According to the inspection of 17 million tonnes of milled rice bought under the previous government's scheme, only 2.19 million tonnes were deemed of standard quality and classified as Grade A rice.
Some 14.4 million tonnes were judged to be substandard Grade B, while the rest was classified as Grade C because it was either rotten or had been registered incorrectly.
The rice-pledging scheme was a major policy that helped to sweep Ms Yingluck to power in the 2011 general election.
However, its guaranteed purchase of every single grain at a pledging price of 40-50% above market prices incurred a substantial cost to taxpayers.
Thailand also lost its crown as the world's biggest rice exporter, as the scheme, which ran for five crops, encouraged farmers to grow low-quality rice that normally took less time to cultivate.
The joint committee of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the Office of the Attorney-General on Tuesday agreed to press criminal charges against Ms Yingluck for alleged dereliction of duty in overseeing the rice scheme and causing massive damage to the state.
The NACC also recommended that former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, his ex-deputy Poom Sarapol and 19 others be indicted for graft for their roles in government-to-government rice sales.
Manas Jamveha, director-general of the Comptroller-General's Department, said his department, which is responsible for seeking compensation from those alleged to have caused damage to the state, was awaiting the Commerce Ministry's report.
"Damaged state agencies must submit a summary report of the charge to verify all information," he said.
"They must set up a committee to launch the probe again before arranging the report."