The government is being urged to exercise the powerful Section 44 of the interim charter to cut red tape and speed up sales of state rice stocks. He said the government would be subject to more losses while rice stocks would be degraded on a gradual basis should it fail to speed up rice sales. "Various and complicated state regulations don't facilitate rice sales." Mr Nipon suggested the government sell rice stocks twice a month both on a whole-warehouse basis and a stack basis. It estimates the rice scheme, which offered farmers prices much higher than market prices, cost the state about 580 billion baht based on rice prices as of May when milled rice was quoted at 14,000 baht a tonne.

Source: Bangkok Post July 26, 2016 23:48 UTC