Blacklisted rice millers win reprieve from commerce minister

Chaiya is now considering which millers should be forgiven and will next week propose them to the Cabinet for approval.

The move came after rice millers had urged the ministry to relax its fines, saying that the interest rate of 72 per cent a year for missing rice contracts with the ministry was too high. "The ministry wants to give those millers a chance to adjust and to ensure there will be enough millers in the pledging programme as more rice will enter the government's stock¬pile. Rice millers still have to pay the liabilities, with a full amount of Bt1.4 billion, and a 5percent bank guaran¬tee, which would be costs of Bt200 million," said Chaiya.

Chaiya said the ministry was consid¬ering decreasing the interest of 72 per cent per annum to only 18 per cent.

The total income that the govern¬ment should still receive from those millers would be Bt2 billion, down from Bt2.8 billion.

The ministry would increase the bank guarantee from 5 per cent to 1520 per cent of the value of each con¬tract in order to ensure that those millers would not break contracts with the government in the future.

Sompong Kittireanglarp, president of Ponglarb, the country's thirdlargest rice exporter, said he did not agree with the government's plan to waive all debt for millers as it would create a huge burden for the government.

"Cheating traders will not be pun¬ished and may not fear repeating such mistakes in the future. The govern¬ment must ensure that all blacklisted millers are responsible for their actions," he said, adding that the remaining millers have enough capac¬ity to undertake the huge stockpiles from the upcoming harvest season.

However, Sompong agreed with the government idea to decrease the high interest rate as it was too heavy for small and mediumsized millers.

In addition, to increasing the govern¬ment's efficiency in handling rice stocks, Chaiya said the government was considering investing Bt3 billion to Bt4 billion to establish a silo in the central part of Thailand. It would have a capacity of The project would relieve a huge financial burden for the government, which has to pay other millers to keep the government's rice stockpiles and for packaging and fumigating rice in normal warehouses. This silo is expected to have a capacity of 500,000 tonnes of paddy rice.