BANGKOK, 13 June 2014 – The Government Savings Bank, the Bank of Ayudhya and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ won the bid to lend money for the 2nd batch of payment to rice growers who were still waiting for the money owed them under the rice pledging scheme.
Miss Chularat Sithithon, director of the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO), Ministry of Finance, said on Thursday that the Government Savings Bank will provide 20 billion baht, the Bank of Ayudhya will provide 10 billion baht and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ will provide another 10 billion baht to fund the second round of rice growers’ payment. The average interest is 2.2705%, and the money will be given to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives on June 19.
According to her, the interest rate quoted is still appropriate. Although it is higher than that of the previous round of auction by 0.09%, the rate is still lower than that of the government’s 3-year bond.
The amount of money involved in the rice mortgage program during year 2011-2013 totaled 396 billion baht. After this round of payout to farmers, only 2.431 billion baht will remain owed to the rice growers. Ms. Chularat said she expected this amount to come from the Ministry of Commerce’s selling of the stockpiled rice; no further borrowing would be necessary.
