The Commerce Ministry has rejected widespread criticism on social media that it was too slow to act in demanding financial compensation from suspects in the multi-billion-baht rice-pledging scandal.
A new wave of negative comments from concerned netizens was prompted by worries that the statute of limitations in the case was due to expire on Sept 7.
But Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn discounted the date as pure speculation. She said Sept 7 was simply the deadline for two panels to rule on whether former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and 21 other people implicated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) are, in fact, financially liable.
If the panels rule they should bear the responsibility of compensation, the state agencies concerned will be notified to issue instructions for the suspects to comply, Ms Apiradi said.
The two-year statute of limitations in this case was counted from Jan 20 when the NACC implicated the suspects and agreed to indict them, she said.
The panels were set up by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha under the Finance and Commerce ministries.
The first panel was set up to work on the NACC's indictment of Ms Yingluck in the rice-pledging scandal while the other was assigned to work on the NACC's indictment of former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and 20 of his associates.
Ms Yingluck has been accused of dereliction of duty and abuse of authority in failing to stop graft and losses in the rice-pledging scheme.
Mr Boonsong and 20 others have been accused of violating a law on the submission of contract bids to state agencies, an anti-graft act, and the Criminal Code Sections 151 and 157 concerning wrongdoing while in office.
They face these allegations in connection with fake government-to-government rice deals with two Chinese trading companies: Guangdong Stationery and Sporting Goods Import and Export, and Hainan Grains and Industrial Trading.
Ms Apiradi said the panels were given 120 days to finish their tasks, but 30-day extensions of the deadline may be granted.