Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra told the Supreme Court on Friday that her loss-ridden rice-pledging programme really helped debt-ridden farmers and the national economy.
She made the comment as she took the stand on the first day of defence witness testimony in her trial before the Criminal Division for Political Office Holders. Testimony by defence witnesses is scheduled to continue until Feb 3 next year.
Ms Yingluck is accused of dereliction of duty for failing to stop the programme that ran from 2012-14 despite being warned repeatedly of the potential damage, estimated in the end to have exceeded 500 billion baht.
Her government was in power from August 2011 to May 2014. Under the rice-pledging programme, a key plank in the Pheu Thai Party election platform, the government bought all rice from farmers at prices 40-50% above prevailing market rates.
Ms Yingluck told the court that pledging prices set at 15,000 to 20,000 baht per tonnes were not too high because they were aimed at enabling rice growers to earn equivalent to 300 baht per day -- the same as the daily minimum wage for labourers -- and resolving their chronic indebtedness, she said.
"We found that the rice policy was able to increase people's income and the price of rice for farmers," she said.
She described the rice-pledging programme as a non-profit scheme formulated to support the overall economy. Surveys showed that rice growers had more assets and fewer debts and banks reported fewer non-performing loans as a result, the former prime minister said.
She denied that the scheme programme affected market mechanisms, saying that 58% of rice growers joined in its first year, and 50% did so in the following year. Traders could continue to buy rice from other farmers as usual, she said.
"It did not distort the market. We saw that the benefits of the scheme outweighed the monetary losses."
Ms Yingluck said she was unable to stop the programme because her government had announced it in parliament and thus had an obligation to carry it out.
The aim of the programme, devised by Ms Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra, was to control rice supply in hopes of pushing up export prices. However, the world market was experiencing an oversupply at the time and the scheme backfired on Thailand. As well, authorities allege there was widespread corruption in the reporting of rice transactions, while fake government-to-government rice sales resulted in further damage.
Ms Yingluck told the court that her government steadily improved criteria for implementing the programme in order to reduce corruption and investigated allegations that arose.
As for concerns that the state lost further money as huge stockpiles of rice deteriorated, she said the pledged rice was insured and warehouse owners were contracted to take responsibility for the damage.
It was reported that her administration received 13.3 million tonnes of paddy under the pledging programme and less than 1 million tonnes was exported.
