Flashermac Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 The Finance Ministry will today open bidding among banks for short-term lending totaling Bt20 billion. This forms part of the Bt130-billion funding that the caretaker government is seeking to pay off farmers for what they are owed under the rice-pledging scheme. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan yesterday said that the rice-releasing subcommittee under the National Rice Policy Committee propose the committee to sell 800,000 tonnes of rice to seven private exporters for delivery in the next couple of months. An academic has expressed concern that any commercial banks joining the bidding risk losing credibility among depositors. The ministry's deputy permanent secretary, Pongpanu Svetarundra, said yesterday that the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) would today launch the first bidding, for Bt20 billion-worth of lending. The funding, which will be provided to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, will be guaranteed by the Finance Ministry. "The borrowings will be in line with the market mechanism [the winner is the bank offering the lowest rate]. I expect that both commercial and state-run banks will be interested in joining the bidding, as the loan will be backed by the Finance Ministry. This means the loan is risk-free," he said. Commercial banks should, however, raise concerns over loans totalling up to Bt130 billion to be provided to the rice-pledging programme, an academic said yesterday. Kiatanantha Lounkaew, director of Dhurakil Pundit University's Research Centre, told Krungthep Turakij that whether the caretaker government's borrowings - which might be in the form of lending by commercial banks - would affect the country's banking system depended on the combined size of the loans. According to Bank of Thailand data, there is surplus liquidity of Bt2.37 trillion in the system, meaning that a loan of Bt130 billion would account for 0.5 per cent of the total. The government is preparing to borrow up to Bt130 billion to pay farmers for rice pledged in the 2013-14 harvest season. As of January 24, farmers had been paid Bt54.98 billion for their latest crop. There were still 7.2 million tonnes of paddy, with a pledged value Bt120 billion, for which farmers had yet to be paid. "If looked at numerically, the impact on the country's surplus liquidity is not that high, resulting in little effect on loan interest rates and borrowing costs in the public sector," said Kiatanantha. However, he said the commercial banks could be affected indirectly if they were to provide the government with loans in the current situation, as their credibility would be damaged in the eyes of depositors. In his view, this was more of a risk for the banks than that of the interest income they could expect to earn from providing the loans. Worawit Chailimpamontri, president of the state-owned Government Savings Bank, said yesterday that his institution had refused to provide loans to fund the rice-pledging scheme, fearing that this could affect its depositors' confidence. Union opposition The idea of GSB providing such lending is opposed by the bank's employees and the labour union. Yesterday, some 500 GSB labour union members wearing black gathered at its head office on Phaholyothin Road to oppose the bank's possible approval of loans for the pledging scheme. Worawit said the bank had not at that time received any letter from the Finance Ministry inviting it to participate in the bidding for bridging finance to be spent on the scheme. "If we receive a letter, the authority to decide whether to join the bidding depends on consideration of the bank's board when the amount of a loan exceeds Bt1 billion," he added. He said that while lending to the Finance Ministry would be risk-free, the bank's employees had opposed lending for the rice-pledging scheme. However, as a state-owned bank, it would normally follow the government's policies in supporting the funding of any state-owned investment projects. It had never previously faced a problem in doing so for the 100 years it had been in business, he added. GSB’s outstanding loans to the state sector currently stand at around Bt300 billion, some of which was lent to the Finance Ministry to finance the rice-pledging programme. Meanwhile, Vasin Vanichvoranun, executive vice president of Kasikornbank, said the bank would consider joining the PDMO bidding for funding to shore up the rice-pledging scheme, with its consideration being based on four points. "We will consider the lending conditions, the period of the loan, the bank's liquidity and the return on investment," he said. KBank had yesterday received a bid invitation from the PDMO, he said. A source from the banking industry said commercial banks were reluctant to join the bidding - even though the financing would be guaranteed by the Finance Ministry - because of concerns over good governance and the social trend against such lending. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/First-phase-of-rice-loan-bids-underway-30225531.html (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 ...and a certain person/family has interests in the Thai bank(s)...hmmmmm...the outcome will be interesting.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 If the govt can't pay the farmers back, how are they gonna pay the banks back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioman Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 If the govt can't pay the farmers back, how are they gonna pay the banks back? Duh, from the rice sales of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 If the govt can't pay the farmers back, how are they gonna pay the banks back? Pass an amnesty bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldFun Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 apparently vice president of kasikorn took this seriously. afterall the former name was thai farmers bank now if a caretaker government is prohibited to take on new loans that may carry on to tax payers in next government how on earth is it different to get a loan from local commercial banks than issue bons print money or international intergovernment loans??? WHAT THE FUCK this stinks so bad & any taking banks will never see any of this money (for sure the full stage of loans will never go through)!!! clealy just another smoke sky to try and get the angry unpaid and cheated farmers to vote YING again shameless shameless shameless shameless abuse of TAX PAYERS MONEY.....CAV wake up its your money being wasted every single day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 No loans to pay for rice The caretaker government suffered a major setback yesterday when it failed to secure massive loans to pay farmers ahead of Sunday's election. The government seeks loans to pay for crops farmers sold months ago under its flagship rice-pledging programme. This bad news is likely to hit the ruling Pheu Thai Party hard at the ballot box, after many rice farmers threatened to boycott the election or vote against the party if they were not paid before the election. Leaders of farmers' groups from all over the country agreed yesterday to start protesting on the streets tomorrow if the government fails to settle what it owes to farmers by today, said Songpol Poonsawat, who represents farmers in Ang Thong. "This is our response to the government's failure to pay attention to our suffering. We farmers have been waiting for too long," he said. The government yesterday opened bidding for the first batch of Bt130 billion to be raised through short-term loans. Many of the 34 financial institutions invited by the Finance Ministry avoided the bidding, as there is no clarity on whether the lending would be legitimate. A Finance Ministry source said it would open the next round of bidding for Bt40 billion in loans. The next weekly bidding session is scheduled for Tuesday. "Though some banks joined the bidding, high interest rates were offered, which included risks. This made the Public Debt Management Office [PDMO] cancel the bidding this time," the source said. Had the auction succeeded, farmers who mortgaged their paddy with the government under the scheme would have been paid by today, as the government claimed - two days ahead of the general election on Sunday. As scheduled, the first batch of loans from financial institutions under the auction arranged by the PDMO for the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) totalled Bt20 billion with a 15-year tenor. The open bidding will be made every Tuesday with offers to be submitted before 10am. The bidding is part of the Bt130-billion funding that the caretaker government is seeking to pay off farmers. The PDMO designed a schedule to gradually borrow from financial institutions up to Bt30 billion a week via bidding until the total amount would reach Bt130 billion as needed. The PDMO's loan bidding arrangement came after the Council of State gave the opinion that the Finance Ministry could proceed with the Bt130- billion borrowing plan. The ministry had asked for legal advice on whether it was eligible to get that amount of loans as carrying loans. Piti Tantakasem, chief wholesale banking officer of TMB Bank, insisted that the bank has not participated in the loan auctions for the BAAC because some legal issues needed further study, and the approval of the bank's credit committee was needed. Teeranun Srihong, co-president of Kasikornbank, cited the same reason, saying the bank did not join the bidding, as it could be not verified legally. A source from the banking industry said banks had discussed among themselves by phone and agreed that the auction was not a suitable way of lending and that it could affect depositors' trust. However, the Finance Ministry reportedly threatened the banks with revoking their right to be the ministry's primary dealer if they didn't join the auction. Despite the disappointment from the government's aborted bridge-financing bidding, the Commerce Ministry has high hopes that foreign banks would be interested. Caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the state-owned banks' employees were worrying too much about the lending. They should concern themselves more about the farmers who have been not yet been paid, and allow the banks to lend money. "The government should be able to earn money and pay farmers as soon as possible, while it may consider not allowing state-run banks to join the rice-pledging project in the future," he said. Caretaker Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said seeking funds to support the rice-pledging scheme is the responsibility of the Finance Ministry, while the Commerce Ministry would accelerate selling rice from the state's stockpiles to earn money to pay off the unpaid farmers for paddy pledged. However, Niwatthumrong could not disclose how long it would take or how much money the ministry could make from rice releases to pay the farmers. Wichian Phuanglamchiak, president of the Thai Agriculturist Association, has called on employees of government banks to be more sympathetic towards farmers, as millions of them have suffered from the delay in payment under the pledging scheme since October. "Farmers are suffering tremendously from the late payment under the pledging scheme. We owe the BAAC, fertiliser and pesticide traders, the rice seed company and transportation companies for delivering rice to millers," he said. If the government banks do not care about farmers, the group of farmers will withdraw their money from those banks and will embargo government banks' services, he said. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/No-loans-to-pay-for-rice-30225656.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 apparently vice president of kasikorn took this seriously. afterall the former name was thai farmers bank now if a caretaker government is prohibited to take on new loans that may carry on to tax payers in next government how on earth is it different to get a loan from local commercial banks than issue bons print money or international intergovernment loans??? WHAT THE FUCK this stinks so bad & any taking banks will never see any of this money (for sure the full stage of loans will never go through)!!! clealy just another smoke sky to try and get the angry unpaid and cheated farmers to vote YING again shameless shameless shameless shameless abuse of TAX PAYERS MONEY.....CAV wake up its your money being wasted every single day I am well awake on this one! First off, my brilliant idea here...sell the rice, get *** some *** money and go from there! Do something, as the rice is rotting and maybe cannot ever sell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted February 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 BOT chief urges sale of rice from govt stockpiles to fund payment to farmers The central bank governor yesterday advised the caretaker government to raise funds by speeding up the sale of rice from the state's stockpiles instead of borrowing to pay farmers taking part in its rice-pledging scheme. Prasarn Trairatvorakul, governor of the Bank of Thailand, said the pledging scheme had created problems for farmers because they were not being paid and they suffered badly from lack of savings. "The government should sell rice from the stockpiles as soon as possible ... even if the sales are made at a loss," Prasarn said. More than a million farmers have not been paid for their pledged paddy in the 2013-14 harvest season, representing 10.71 million tonnes worth a total of Bt167 billion. The farmers have threatened to block roads and stage protest rallies against the government because of the delay in payments. After the Finance Ministry on Thursday failed to obtain a Bt20-billion short-term loan in the first batch of the Bt130-billion fund planned to finance the rice-pledging project, TMB Bank was reportedly named as the winner of the bid. However, the ministry said none of the financial institutions had won it. TMB Bank chief executive officer Boontuck Wangcharoen clarified in a statement released yesterday that the bank did not take part in the loan bidding on Thursday. "The legal risk is not clear. So the process of credit has not yet been considered as more than half of the bank's directors, who are foreigners, are abroad," Boontuck said in a statement. Kosit Panpiemras, executive chairman of Bangkok Bank, said it did not take part in the loan auction on Thursday, as the law regarding the loan was still unclear. He said commercial banks had to be careful on such matters. Narongchai Akrasanee, chairman of MFC Asset Management, suggested that the next government should expand the revolving fund for paying for paddy under the scheme once they are in power. Then they can begin to pay the farmers gradually through any banks that are willing, and not only the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. Prasarn said the problem faced by commercial banks in the auction related to the law, which is still unclear, and they were worried that the next government might not honour the deal. However, he said the BOT would not interfere, as it believes commercial banks can deal with it. Meanwhile, caretaker Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said China had expressed concerns about the Thai government's ability to supply rice to it under a government-to-government contract. China could cancel the deal. He said that next week he would discuss the matter with the Chinese company involved. In January, the government sold 1 million tonnes of rice from its total stockpile of 10 million tonnes. There are sales contracts for another 5 million tonnes, which are awaiting shipping. http://www.nationmul...--30225746.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted February 1, 2014 Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 Hey...I won the lotto and never had a ticket...WTF TIT at its best! :rotl: :rotl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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