Thailand: Yingluck vows to fight $1b fine, assets seizure over failed rice scheme
Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Pic: AP.
FORMER Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she will pull out all the stops to fight the junta government’s hefty BHT35 billion (US$996.87 million) fine and assets seizure order against her as penalty for the failure of her administration’s flagship rice subsidy program.
The ousted leader confirmed Friday that she was served a notice on the assets seizure two days ago, and labelled the punishment unfair.
“In terms of the order, it is not right and it is not just. I will use every channel available to fight this,” Yingluck was quoted saying in Reuters.
The former Thai leader has 45 days to appeal the order.
The controversial scheme that paid farmers above market rates for their rice was a key policy of Yingluck’s government, and has been credited for her ascension to the office of prime minister in the 2011 federal polls. The scheme was launched in October that year to fulfill the Pheu Thai Party’s election pledge to farmers, who formed a large segment of the party’s voting base.
The BHT35 billion fine was fixed by a state-appointed committee that decided last month the quantum was fitting due to her role in the scheme that led to massive losses for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 rice crop.
According to Bangkok Post, the panel did not find Yingluck guilty for the losses incurred from 2011 to 2012 as the National Anti-Corruption Commission as the office of Thailand’s Auditor-General had not informed her about the alleged corruption at the time.
The report added that the two rice crops from 2012 to 2014 racked up losses worth BHT178 billion UUS$5 billion) and Yingluck is seen as liable for at least 20 percent of this. The government, meanwhile, is expected to seek compensation for the remaining 80 percent from others allegedly responsible for the losses.
In its Oct 19 report, the daily said Deputy Finance Minister Wisudhi Srisuphan and finance permanent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse signed the administrative order on the fine that accuses Yingluck of dereliction of duty in the failed scheme.
Yingluck, who was ousted in 2014 by the military junta, and her supporters have cried foul over the punishment, claiming it was part of the government’s plan to wipe out any last vestiges of the Shinawatra family.
Reuters, quoting government spokesman General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, apart from the fine and assets seizure against Yingluck as well as other cases against some senior members of her former Cabinet, the junta is also conducting graft probes on 850 other cases related to the rice scheme.
These involve numerous lower ranking public officials and members of the private sector.
