On Monday, their representatives went to the Finance Ministry to urge the government to continue providing tax-free status for imported maize from Burma that this group of Thai farmers grew under a contract farming project initiated by the Thaksin Shinawatra government.

However, the September 19 coup disrupted the project and the farmers are facing a tax burden of about Bt10 million to bring their crops across through Mae Sot in the northern border province of Tak. As of press time, this group of Thai farmers could not transport their products across the border, because they did not have the money to pay the import tax.

Representative Rearngchai Suwan said they had sent a petition letter to the finance minister.

The contract scheme was launched in 2005. It encouraged Thai farmers to cooperate with neighbouring countries in the plantation sector and to bring back their produce to Thailand duty-free.

In Thailand, the project, subject to review every year, was under the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).

However, the September 19 coup disrupted the project, as the NESDB did not propose to the Cabinet to renew tax exemptions for imported products generated from contract farming when the fiscal year ended in September last year.

The maize output this season is thus subject to the import tax. Maize has piled up at the Mae Sot checkpoint in Tak province.

A source from the Finance Ministry said the NESDB planned to renew tax privileges for the farmers to enable them to bring in products duty-free up to 2009.

Wichit Chaitrong

The Nation