DPM:Thai government handles rice-pledging scheme well

BANGKOK, July 16 (TNA) - Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong insists that the Thai government has carefully handled its rice-pledging scheme in order not to let it affects the national financial status. Kittirat told journalists on Tuesday that he met executives of US-based Moody’s Investors Service Inc. in Bangkok earlier in the day, during which he informed the Moody’s executives of the Thai government's position, after they inquired about the rice-pledging scheme and suggested that the Thai government limit its spending on the scheme within its target. Kittirat acknowledged that the Thai government has both allocated budgets and spent earnings from its sales of pledged rice to maintain national financial status. To tackle corruption in the scheme, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan said, meanwhile, that he plans to tag rice sacks with chips, noting that a real-time and online system will also be developed to check rice stocks, while a feasibility study on the scheme will be concluded next month. Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach then acknowledged that he has ordered his ministry's Department of Internal Trade to set up a center to supervise rice standard and quality to build confidence among global buyers and to promote Thai grains. (TNA)