Overdue payments to Thai rice farmers completed

Thailand's Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) on Tuesday completed payments to farmers under the ousted Yingluck government's rice-pledging scheme, BAAC president Luck Wajananawat said.
The BAAC has paid the final 90 billion baht (2.78 billion U.S. dollars) to more than 800,000 farmers who had joined the scheme but failed to be duly paid, Luck was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying.
The overdue payment was completed ahead of the deadline on June 22, he said, adding the completion is expected to help boost the economy and add to the GDP growth.
The Yingluck government started buying rice from farmers at above-market prices in 2011 to shore up rural incomes, fulfilling a campaign pledge by the Pheu Thai Party, which won a parliamentary majority that year. Critics have accused the scheme of breeding corruption and incurring great losses.
Junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha earlier said that the scheme would not be continued, and it remained unsure whether it would be revived in the future.
The Junta on Monday also decided to scrap the "One Tablet Per Child" project, which was another flagship policy of the Yingluck government, saying money saved from the canceled project will be used to support education in other manners.