Bangkok

A RICE subsidy scheme introduced by Thailand's ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was found to have lost 518 billion baht (S$20.5 billion), the finance ministry said.

The scheme, which paid farmers above-market rates for their crop, helped bring Yingluck to power in a landslide election in 2011 due to support from farmers mostly in the country's north and north-east.