BANGKOK, 7 June 2013 – Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Kittiratt Na-Ranong has explained that the earlier reported losses of 260 billion baht caused by the rice pledging scheme were made up of figures from various crop mortgage programs.
Mr Kittiratt on Friday said the 260-billion-baht losses had been accumulated for many years across the board of many crop mortgage programs. As for budget of the rice pledging scheme for the 2011/2012 crop year, the minister said he still could not disclose if the budget spent had exceeded the set amount of 500 billion baht. He only said that the Cabinet had earlier authorized the Ministry of Finance to increase the budget and finance the scheme with money from other sources.
The Deputy Prime Minister has instructed the Fiscal Policy Office to clarify the matter to Moody’s after the agency announced to downgrade Thailand due to financial damages allegedly caused by the controversial rice pledging scheme.
