Thailand's first woman premier Yingluck Shinawatra has been held liable for damages worth over USD 8.2 billion from a controversial rice subsidy scheme, according to the military government which said it intends to sue the ousted leader and key former ministers for the losses.
This is the first time a concrete figure has been given for the losses from what was hailed as a flagship policy that helped sweep the 49-year-old to office in a 2011 landslide, making her Thailand's first woman premier, but which incurred billions of dollars to the state exchequer and cost the country its title as the world's top rice exporter to India.
"A fact-finding committee panel... Has found that the damage cost of rice pledging scheme was 286.6 billion baht (USD 8.2 billion)," Panadda Disakul, a minister to the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters.
According to the panel's report, nearly 13 million tonnes of rice remained in the government's inventory because less than a million tonnes was exported.
The report by Jirachai Moonthongro, who heads the civil liability fact-finding committee looking into the scheme initiated by the Yingluck government, says sheis liable for an estimated 286 billion baht in damages and the then commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapiromfor 18.7 billion baht.
The junta says it will push a civil damages case against her and some key former ministers.
Panadda said the measures taken against the previous government should serve as a lesson as politicians could be liable for civil liability for policies that caused financial damage to taxpayers.
The 286.6 billion baht figure evaluation of damage from the scrapped scheme is, however, is much lower - nearly half - than the over 500 billion baht previously evaluated by a panel of the Finance Ministry.
The report would be discussed at a committee meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, Panadda said.
Under the controversial subsidy scheme, which also triggered protests that toppled her government, the crop was purchased from farmers at around twice the market prices. Yingluck was booted from office by a court days before army chief Prayut seized power in May, 2014.
She was formally impeached on charges of mismanaging the subsidy programme, barring her from political office for five years and is currently on trial for alleged dereliction of duty in administering the program, a criminal charge under which she could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Her impeachment was seen by experts and supporters as an attempt to keep the powerful Shinawatra family - whose parties have won every election since 2001 - out of politics and end the clan's influence.
