Supreme Court Orders Ex-PM Yingluck to Pay B10bn Over Rice Scheme Losses
Bangkok, May 22 — Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court has ordered former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to pay 10 billion baht in compensation for losses stemming from her government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme, which was implemented more than a decade ago.
The ruling, delivered Thursday in Bangkok, upheld the Ministry of Finance’s appeal against a previous decision by the Central Administrative Court, but significantly reduced the compensation amount from the original demand of 35.7 billion baht to 10.03 billion baht. The court based the revised amount on 50% of the 20.06 billion baht in damages attributed to flawed government-to-government (G-to-G) rice sales under the subsidy programme.
The rice-pledging scheme, introduced during Yingluck’s tenure, aimed to increase farmers’ incomes by purchasing rice at above-market prices. However, the court found the programme caused severe market distortions and substantial financial losses to the state.
In 2021, the Central Administrative Court had ruled that the Finance Ministry’s compensation order lacked legal basis, noting that most instances of corruption — including forged G-to-G sales, substandard storage, and misuse of foreign rice — occurred at the operational level. The court also stated there was no conclusive evidence linking Yingluck directly to those irregularities.
Yingluck, who fled Thailand in 2017 before being sentenced to five years in prison by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions, has maintained her innocence. Her legal team argued that while the rice policy may have faced implementation issues, it was intended to benefit farmers, and she had no direct role in its flawed execution.
The Finance Ministry’s appeal cited the Supreme Court’s earlier conviction as justification for Yingluck’s liability. While Thursday’s decision is final, the process for recovering the damages remains uncertain. Authorities have seized some of Yingluck’s assets, including her residence in Nawamin Soi 111, but it has yet to be auctioned.
The high-profile case continues to draw attention to the enduring political divisions and legal repercussions tied to the Shinawatra family’s influence in Thai politics.
