BANGKOK, Jan 20 – Farmers are up in arms against the government’s failure to pay for their rice while employees of a state bank dressed in black to protest against borrowing from bank reserves to pay farmers.
Puti Srisamutnark, president of the Thai Farmers Promotion Association, said today that he was compiling a list of petitioners to lodge a complaint with the Administrative Court against the government for repeatedly failing to pay for the rice they have sold under the rice subsidy scheme.
The caretaker Yingluck Shinawatra government has pledged to buy rice from farmers at Bt15,000 per tonne.
Mr Puti said farmers in many areas have prepared for the new planting season but they have yet to receive payment for delivery of rice in the last harvest.
“They have admitted that they would earn only Bt6,000-8,000 per tonne from the next harvest while production cost would be as high as Bt6,000,” he said.
No matter which political party will run the country, the association will ask the new government to continue assisting farmers so that they sell rice at no less than Bt12,000 per tonne, he said.
Meanwhile, the labour union of the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) held a special meeting today and strongly objected to the government’s plan to spend the depositors’ money to pay farmers.
BAAC employees dressed in black to display their opposition and said the government has already withdrawn Bt90 billion from the bank to subsidise the rice pledging scheme.
Union leader Prasit Pahome said the labour union protested the new move to borrow Bt55 billion from the BAAC to purchase rice from farmers in the 2014 crop.
“The Cabinet did not approve the Bt55 billion (before dissolving the House of Representatives). It is turning to the Government Savings Bank for the loan,” he said.
The caretaker government is not authorised by law on new financial expenditure.
Caretaker deputy finance minister Thanusak Lek-uthai is scheduled to meet with the BAAC board of directors today to discuss the bank’s financial allocation to the rice subsidy scheme.
Mr Prasit said BAAC employees nationwide will stand up for civil disobedience but will not stop servicing clients. They will organise a movement to remove the Board of Directors if it insists on lending to the government for the rice scheme.
“We have to protect the bank’s liquidity. The Public Health Ministry has threatened to withdraw its deposits if the BAAC approves loans for the rice subsidy programme,” he said.
