|
Cabinet endorses in principle debt suspension for farmers BANGKOK, Mar. 13 (TNA) – The cabinet has approved in principle a proposed plan of the Ministry of Finance to implement a three-year debt suspension for local small-scaled farmers who owe Bt100,000 each to Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC). Deputy Prime Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, told TNA that the endorsement was made at a weekly cabinet meeting today. He said, however, that details and procedures of the scheme would be discussed at a meeting of a government panel in charge of overseeing the debt suspension policy, which is headed by him, on Thursday before the plan would be presented to the cabinet again next week. “I’ll call for a meeting of all parties concerned, including representatives of the Finance Ministry, the Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Ministry, and BAAC, on Thursday to discuss details and procedures of the scheme before presenting it to the cabinet for further consideration next week”, he stated. The discussion would include issues on whether the project should be expanded to cover small-scaled farmers who owe to local cooperatives, not to BAAC, and on whether farmers who owe to BAAC more than Bt100,000 could be allowed to enter the scheme, he disclosed. Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Ratanakorn told TNA that a total budget of around Bt7.7 billion annually would be used to support the plan, based on the original objective of assisting only small-scaled clients of BAAC with no more than Bt100,000 debts each, but if the new proposals were included, the earmarked budget would be increased to Bt14 billion. Based on the original objective, there would be about two million farmers entering the scheme, but the number would rise to around 2.8 million if the new proposals were approved, he stated. A separate budget of around Br380 million would be used to manage the project, he noted. Varathep said that he believed the new scheme could be launched on April 1 as earlier planned. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Somkid Jatusipitak said that the government wanted to maintain the original objective of the scheme, as the proposed expansion could consume too much budget. (TNA) . Last Update : 3/13/01 : 6:35:08 PM |
|
| aus der Diskussion: | Waste or make money in Thailand |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | BodyG (13.03.01 19:58:30) |
| Beitrag: | 514 von 611 (ID:3092356) |
| Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr © wallstreetONLINE | |