NLA denies drafting of rice bill politically motivated

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Peerasak Porjit.
Peerasak Porjit.

Bangkok – A deputy speaker of the Thai assembly has played down an accusation of political motives being behind the drafting of a rice bill.

Peerasak Porjit, the Second Vice President of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), has advised that the new rice bill will be handed to the NLA president this Monday and will soon be presented to the main assembly for review.

Once the bill is passed, all buyers of rice for business purposes must have a license and sellers will be legally obligated to provide a receipt for every sale of rice.

Peerasak said the drafting committee has been working on the bill for the past two years, confirming that the move to seek the main assembly’s approval is not to help the current administration gain support from rice farmers ahead of the forthcoming election in early 2019, but merely for the sake of Thai farmers.

The NLA vice president noted that visiting local communities is a common practice for legislators to learn and understand social problems and adversities, enabling them to adopt legal measures to prevent, ease, and address those issues more effectively.