BANGKOK: Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court has ordered former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to pay 10 billion baht (approximately US$305 million) in damages over losses incurred by a controversial rice subsidy programme implemented during her tenure.
The ruling follows Yingluck’s appeal against a prior order requiring her to pay 35 billion baht. The court determined that while the previous figure exceeded her legal liability, she was still responsible for significant losses caused by gross negligence in overseeing the scheme.
Launched under her Pheu Thai-led administration, the rice pledging programme paid farmers up to 50% above market prices. The populist initiative was politically popular but financially unsustainable, resulting in billions of dollars in losses and surplus rice stockpiles.
Yingluck, who fled the country in 2017 to avoid a five-year prison sentence for negligence, called the latest order “excessive” and vowed to continue fighting for justice. “Even if I repaid it my entire life, it would never be enough,” she said via social media.
The verdict comes as the Shinawatra family regains political influence, with the Pheu Thai party returning to power and Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, having recently returned from self-imposed exile.
The Shinawatras maintain the charges against them are politically motivated, rooted in longstanding tensions with Thailand’s conservative establishment.–REUTERS
