Thailand's caretaker government allowed to spend Bt20b for payment to farmers

BANGKOK, March 4 (TNA) - The Election Commission of Thailand (EC) has now allowed the caretaker government to borrow 20 billion baht from the fiscal 2014 state budget for its payment to local farmers who have sold their grains to the official rice-pledging programme. An election commissioner, Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, told journalists on Tuesday that the EC gave the green light at its meeting earlier in the day, as requested by Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong. Based on the EC's resolution, the caretaker government needs to pay back the borrowed money from its rice sale before May 31, 2014. Somchai said the EC's approval for the caretaker government to borrow the money also came after Surasak Riangkrul, Director-General of the Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Foreign Trade, gave an assurance that his ministry’s revenue from rice sale stands about 8 billion baht monthly, meaning that its revenue from rice sale over the next three months would be about 24 billion baht, enough for paying back to the state budget in the 2014 fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2014. According to the election commissioner, the new Thai government is not be obliged to be responsible for the borrowed money and the money will be paid to farmers for their pledged rice before the dissolution of the House of Representatives last November; so, it should not affect the general election. (TNA)