Commerce counters finance's figure, says 3-year total should not exceed Bt240 bn

The Commerce Ministry has refuted the Finance Ministry's claim yesterday that the country has suffered a huge loss of up to Bt400 billion from two years of the rice pledging programme.

"The ministry has already returned Bt160 billion to the Finance Ministry for pledging spending after it could sell rice from stockpiles. Another Bt40 billion should be returned to the Finance Ministry by the end of this year," Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said.

The average annual loss from the previous and soon-to-be pledged harvest seasons should not go over Bt80 billion a year, he said, implying that the total loss over three years should not exceed Bt240 billion. The government has only acknowledge a loss of Bt136 billion from the first two crops.

The government should earn more than Bt200 billion this year to help defray Bt670 billion in cumulative expenses, so the total loss should not reach Bt400 billion.

The government holds about 15 million tonnes of milled rice in inventory, of which 5 million tonnes have already been sold, but are waiting for shipment to overseas markets under government-to-government deals.

The government is negotiating with many countries to buy the remaining stocks of rice.

The government will try to sum up the spending and loss figures after it can release all remaining inventory, he added. The Thai Rice Exporters Association reported that rice export volume fell 4.4 per cent to 4.33 million tonnes in the first eight months of the year, while value dropped 5.2 per cent to Bt91.18 billion.

Major importing countries were Iraq with 581,075 tonnes, Benin with 560,647 tonnes, the United States with 247,882 tonnes, Japan with 219,667 tonnes and the Ivory Coast with 219,362 tonnes.

The Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) said it would kick off the new pledging phase for the main crop today. More than 8 million tonnes of rice are expected to enter the government's granaries from October-February.

PWO president Chanudpakorn Vongseenin said more than 590 rice millers in 60 provinces, which have joined the pledging project of the government, should stay in the programme this year.

So far, about 370 warehouses from 48 provinces have joined the project to help government store rice.

However, in the first two weeks, mortgaged rice would not be as much as expected - only 500,000 tonnes would enter the stocks. About 5 million tonnes would arrive at warehouses from late October to November.

The government has maintained the pledging price for the main crop at Bt15,000 a tonne of white paddy, and limited the pledging value to Bt350,000 per farming household.

The PWO is seeking to prosecute a surveyor that produced fake bank guarantee documents for participating in the rice pledging project.

It is cooperating with Krungthai Bank and Department of Special Investigation in this criminal case, he added.

Source: The Nation