Come clean on rice pledging

EDITORIAL

Published: 14 Mar 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

The government is determined to carry on with the populist rice pledging scheme, despite heavy losses and huge stockpiles of unsold rice left in warehouses to the point where there is scarcely any room to store new harvests due to arrive next month.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced on Tuesday that farmers still want the project so the government has to respond to their wishes. However, she said the scheme needs to be implemented transparently, especially the sale of rice from its stockpiles.

The prime minister's promise of transparency in rice sales is welcome. The Commerce Ministry has implemented the scheme over the past year in conditions of near secrecy.

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bluebottle
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Discussion 12 : 14 Mar 2013 at 17.0412
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Like the last paragraph.Mr T and his cronies abroad are laughing all the way to the bank.
PS, the EU have been subsidising for years.
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apachepat
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Discussion 11 : 14 Mar 2013 at 17.0211
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government must keep any scheme that benefits the farmers going at all costs, for decades the DEM governments and the elites kept all the money for themselves in Bangkok and treated the country folk worse than animals. TAX PAYERS of Bangkok need to stop moaning, You pay tax FULL STOP.. what happens to your tax money is not up to you, better distributed to millions of your countrymen to begin to raise their living standard up out of the mud, than stashed in foreign bank accounts by a few eliteist families and military brass. Remember that the first thing the coup makers did was double their budget, you want save some tax money LOOK there.
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jck
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Discussion 10 : 14 Mar 2013 at 11.3710
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The government has no right to hide any facts about this scheme involving taxpayer money from the public for whom they are supposed to be working. OK, keep your military and national security issues secret, if you have any, but the rice scheme must be totally transparent. Thais should be screaming for answers.
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mogy71
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Discussion 9 : 14 Mar 2013 at 11.329
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Always predictable scenario unfolding on this governemnt critical article again with the ProPTP voices conspicuous by their absence.
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facts_only
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Discussion 8 : 14 Mar 2013 at 10.208
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The above Opinion article uses conspiracy theories and opinion to argue against the rice policy.

The TN article titled, 'Extension of rice-pledging scheme: bad news' uses economic theories and logic to argue against the rice policy.
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wynner
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Discussion 7 : 14 Mar 2013 at 10.207
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Transparency is the right word but the behavior is the farthest thing from it. This is the property of all the Thai people and the government should act like it. Please give us a simple analysis like kilos in, kilos in stock, kilos sold. If the government cannot reveal more than this the reason is simple -- the truth is just too scary.
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pjt
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Discussion 6 : 14 Mar 2013 at 07.326
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On the G2G deals it would be enough to know the aggregate amounts across all the deals of the details you request plus the number of countries. This would make it simple and really give no excuse for non disclosure on the grounds of commercial confidentiality. Of equal importance is to know the movement in the state of the inventory on a monthly basis. Should be as simple as the weight and value of what is on hand, how much came in last month, how much was sold, how much scrapped. This rice belongs to the Thai people, and they ultimately will bear the losses in either higher taxes or borrowing or in alternative spending forgone
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waters
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Discussion 5 : 14 Mar 2013 at 07.225
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A well written artical that echos what many people have been saying since this rice scam proposal was proposed before the last general election. A lot of questions remain....

1. How will Thailand keep out rice grown in Laos, Cambodia, and Burma, seeing as thousands of kilometers of their frontiers border Thailand?

2. Who rents rice storage space and how much do they receive per ton per month?

3. Are the rice millers paying tax on the obscene profits they are making?

4. Who is going to buy Thai homali rice, schemed at Baht 20,000/ton not counting storage costs?
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pete
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Discussion 4 : 14 Mar 2013 at 06.544
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“The cabinet's decision on Tuesday to allow the bank to borrow another 74.2 billion baht as a revolving fund for the scheme with the Finance Ministry acting as guarantor will give the bank a reprieve to carry on with the scheme for at least another year”.

This is a government bail out using taxpayer’s money. The cost of government bailouts results in massive job losses and generally a visit to the lender of last resort like the IMF.
Government does not solve problems, it just creates or subsidizes them.
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waters
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Discussion 3 : 14 Mar 2013 at 06.503
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"The rice pledging scheme needs a rethink as it is not sustainable. Apart from that, it does not help the farmers as much as it helps rice millers, landlord farmers, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats."

That says it all in a nutshell. PT doesn't care because their priority is to hold on to their voters in the north and northeast, even if it means bankruptcy for Thailand.

What will happen when the Thai rice farmers apply the same rice growing techniques that the Chinese are using, which produces 200-300% higher yields per rai more than Thai rice farming?
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Come clean on rice pledging | Bangkok Post: opinion