Disgruntled exporters yesterday accused Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of avoiding a decision on contentious deals for 2.6 million tonnes of rice.

They said the premier dodged a meeting with exporters who had sought explanations about why an earlier bid was scrapped and how the government should handle 124,000 tonnes of rice already paid for by winning exporters.

"We haven't yet had any clear conclusion on the controversial rice deals," said Sompong Kitireanglarp, the president of Ponglarp Co. His was one of 17 companies that won bids for 2.6 million tonnes of second-crop rice from the Commerce Ministry.

"The premier himself has always come up with excuses not to meet the exporters, even though we need only 10 minutes to hear his explanations."

Ponglarp signed a contract on May 13 with the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) to buy 220,000 tonnes of rice worth 4 billion baht, and has paid more than 500 million baht so far.

The cabinet last month stopped the rice sales for fear of losses, even though deals were signed with some winning companies.

According to Mr Sompong, the government was asked to return exporters' deposits worth 130-140 million baht, as certain exporters had now cancelled deliveries to customers.

"The government should be more decisive on this issue, otherwise Thai rice exports would be damaged," he said.The government now says it plans a new bid to dispose of stockpiles of about 8 million tonnes of milled rice.

However, the Commerce Ministry has yet to come up with an exact timeframe for the fresh bid and methods, pending direction from its Foreign Trade Department, which is authorised to handle the sales.

A department source said the details should be ready for a meeting of the National Rice Policy Committee sometime after the end of this week.

Source: Bangkok Post