More than half of people polled believe the caretaker government will be unable to pay farmers any more than 50% of the 130 billion baht owed in overdue rice payments by the end of February, Nida Poll said on Wednesday.
Between Feb 17 and 18, the pollster at the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida) surveyed 1,253 people of all education levels and occupations on the government's ability to make overdue rice payments.
Asked whether they believed the government is capable of making the 130 billion baht rice payments in February, 47.81 of respondents said no, while 16.76% said they thought the government might pay farmers less than 50% of the total amount owed, Nida Poll reported.
However, 16.28% of people said they were confident the government would be able to make the overdue payments and 14.84% said at least half of the total amount owed would be paid. A further 4.31% were unsure, the pollster said.
Asked about the pressing questions that they want government to provide answers on, 27.89% said they wanted to know the whereabouts of money made from selling rice under the state subsidy scheme, 21.17% asked why the caretaker government has no money to pay rice farmers and 19.40% wanted to know exactly when the 130 billion baht rice payments would be made.
A further 10.53% said they had no questions on the issue because they were confident in the government’s management of the rice scheme, 9.03% wanted to know whether the government would continue the rice scheme if it won another term in office, 7.04% made no comment and 1.72% asked who state rice had been sold to and how many tonnes of rice are currently in government stockpiles.
The remaining 3.22% raised other related questions, including why the government isn't doing more to sell rice, why is the rice scheme failing and is there any corruption in the scheme. If the scheme is proven to be corrupt, people asked who is to blame, how the government would be held responsible for its failures and how it could resolve the problems.
Others also asked for details of government-to-government rice purchasing deals and questioned why officials hadn't implemented a rice guarantee instead of the pledging programme.
