抄録
In this paper the formation, the mechanism, the objectives, and the arguments concerning the rice premium (specific rice export tax) policy of Thailand are discussed. The rice premium policy is considered to have been instituted in 1955,but a special levy among other levies on commercial rice export, the rice premium, was collected from 1951. The extraction of large amounts of government revenue from Thai rice export started in 1946. The deep roots of this policy can be shown by : (1) The Thai government traditionally adhered to rice export tax from the middle of the 19th century, and (2) The rice premium or other levies on rice export from 1946 seem to fill the vacuum in government revenue caused by the abolition of the traditionally important land tax and capitation in 1938.
From 1955 the rice premium policy has been effective with occasional application of export quotas. Under the relatively stable world rice market from 1955 to 1965, the rice premium policy was mainly used for the purpose of earning government revenue. But because of the explosive price fluctuation in the world rice market since 1966, the policy began to be used effectively for stabilization of the domestic rice price with the help of the export quota. These two rice export policies were used complementarily in the very unstable world and domestic rice conditions.
Concerning the dispute about the rice premium policy, the empirical and theoretical analysis in this paper showed that the world rice market that Thailand faces is imperfectly competitive. Thus most of the critics' assertions are shown to be wrong and require considerable revision, and the proponents' positions are mostly substantiated.
