The Commerce Ministry’s Department of Foreign Trade (DFT) expects to send the administrative orders to these six persons by next week.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had asked her to proceed with the orders and she then told the DFT to carry them out, a ministry source who requested anonymity said yesterday.

These six persons have the right to appeal the orders to a court within 90 days of the date of receipt.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission has indicated that there are grounds to demand compensation from these six persons over the Bt20-billion G2G rice deals.

They are former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, his then-deputy Poom Sarapol, former secretary to the Commerce Ministry Weerawut Wajanaphukka, former DFT director-general Manas Soiploy, his then-deputy Tikhumporn Natvaratat, and the DFT’s former director of foreign rice trade, Akharapong Chuaikliang.

Meanwhile, the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) said the junta might need to consider invoking Article 44 of the interim charter to fast-track the release of low-grade rice in the government’s stockpiles to industrial users in order to clear out all inventory quickly.

That would help quickly reduce inventory storage and related costs, Nipon Poapongsakorn, a distinguished TDRI fellow and head of a study on the issue, said during his presentation of the paper to the public.

Of the 9.7 million tonnes of rice remaining in the state’s granaries, about 4.6 million tonnes is estimated to be of poor quality or substandard. This substandard rice needs a special mechanism to facilitate effective management and release.

All the stockpiles should be completely cleared out within two years to avoid inventory and other costs, which run about Bt18 billion per year, the study says.

The government should release its rice on a regular basis such as twice a month to complete the release in two or three years before the rice starts deteriorating, it says. No government should intervene in the price mechanism of any kind of farm product and keep products in storage, to avoid any related costs or losses.

The TDRI study was funded by the Agricultural Research Development Agency. It mainly focused on which is the best way to release rice at the least cost and with the least impact on rice farmers.

Pramote Vanichanont, honorary president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, said at the event yesterday in support of the recommendation that Article 44 would enable the exemption of some rules, which would allow agencies to clear out the low-grade rice quickly.

The government should draw up new ways to strengthen the rice industry, otherwise governments would have to subsidise rice sales every year, he said.

In a subsidy programme, the Yingluck Shinawatra government pledged 34.5 million tonnes of paddy rice, of which 18.07 million tonnes was sold.