Government debt worth 510 billion baht, borrowed from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) to fund the last administration's loss-making rice-pledging scheme, will take an estimated 16 years to be paid off.
Luck Wajananawat, president of the state-backed bank, said if the loan repayment amount remains unchanged, the government will take around 16 years to pay off the debt.
Rice-pledging scheme costs state 510 billion baht, says Mr Luck. Apichit Jinakul
The BAAC directly extended 110 billion baht and issued bonds worth 400 billion baht guaranteed by the Finance Ministry to finance the Yingluck Shinawatra administration's rice-pledging scheme.
The current government has set the repayment amount in budget expenditure every fiscal year and will pay 39 billion baht in principal and 20 billion in interest for fiscal 2017, starting Oct 1.
The pork-barrel spending was initiated by the Yingluck Shinawatra government to fulfil the Pheu Thai Party's promises during the 2011 general election campaigns. Under the scheme, the government bought every single grain at a pledged price of between 15,000 and 20,000 baht per tonne of paddy -- 40-50% above the market price.
The scheme was slammed for distorting market price and led to hefty debts for rice farmers as they borrowed and spent lavishly, thinking that they could always sell their paddy at high prices. In addition, the programme was blamed for a deterioration in rice quality as farmers switched to lower-cost but high-yielding premium fragrant rice breeds.
After the scheme ran for two harvest years, it left tens of millions of tonnes of paddy in silos and warehouses, incurring substantial costs for taxpayers.
Ms Yingluck was allegedly negligent in failing to stop corruption in the rice-pledging scheme. Apart from the former premier, the committee through the Commerce Ministry has demanded 18.7 billion baht in compensation for four fake government-to-government rice deals involving 6.2 million tonnes of rice, pointing the finger at six people in the Yingluck government.
Former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and five ex-ministerial officials have been ordered to pay 20 billion baht in compensation. The five are Mr Boonsong's former deputy Poom Sarapol and former secretary Weerawut Wajanaphukka; former Department of Foreign Trade (DFT) director-general Manas Soiploy and his then-deputy Tikhumporn Natvaratat; and the DFT's former director of foreign rice trade, Akharaphong Chuaikliang.
Ms Yingluck faces a hefty fine of 287 billion baht for losses from the rice-pledging scheme in the latest evaluation by a government panel but a committee on civil liability will reveal the official figure soon.