PM orders for speedy return of Bt20 bln to state

BANGKOK, May 5 (TNA) -- Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-ocha has ordered the Commerce Ministry to demand six former politicians and officials to pay back 20 billion baht to the state for damages incurred from rice sold under the government-to-government basis during the previous government’s rice-pledging programme, said a government spokesman Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd. Maj Gen Sansern said considerable progress has been made on the massive corruption programme as the Finance Ministry had sent a letter to the Commerce Ministry asking the latter to order the six persons involved in the scheme to pay back money amounting 20 billion baht to the government. Finance Ministry’s Comptroller General’s Department has calculated that damages resulted from 6.2 million tonnes of rice sold under the government-to-government programme by the ousted government amounted 20 billion baht, said the spokesman. He said the Commerce Ministry is now checking details of the law before informing and demanding the six to pay. Probe was conducted and it was found that former politicians and officials of the Commerce Ministry made up the story of rice sold to the Chinese government on several occasions. The ousted government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra launched the controversial rice-pledging programme in which her government bought rice directly from farmers at prices above the world market. The rice-pledging programme was part of her defunct administration’s populist policy. (TNA)