The Thai government’s rice mortgage program has received a funding boost with the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) offering to use its excess liquidity worth around 227 billion baht (about $7.6 billion) to fund the rice mortgage program this year if the government fails to raise the required funds.
The BAAC president told local sources that the bank’s current liquidity is around three times the norms which could be used to make advance payment to farmers under the rice mortgage program, which will then refunded to the bank by the Commerce Ministry. He also said that the Commerce Ministry has already paid the bank about 102 billion baht (about $3.4 billion) and plans to generate about 220 billion baht (about $7.6 billion) from the release of rice from the stockpile (expected around 6-7 million tons) this year to pay the bank.
According to the USDA, the Thai government has approved funds of about 410 billion baht (about $13.6 billion) for purchase of around 18 million tons of paddy under the rice mortgage program in 2012-13 (October to September).
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