Economic woes resulting from the rice-pledging scheme have caused the sales of student uniforms in Buriram Province to decline more than 20 percent.

Meanwhile, many business operators in the province admitted that their sales have been reduced by 20 percent this year compared to last year, while a number of parents have felt distressed about the rising costs of consumer products.

Parents in Buriram Province have taken their children to buy school supplies and uniforms as the new school semester would open in a week or two. However, most of them have chosen to purchase uniforms that are priced no higher than 300 baht since they are trying to save on costs.

Most of them openly admit that they’ve been affected from the soaring prices of consumer goods. A number of these parents are also farmers who haven’t received their payment from the government’s rice-pledging scheme. Therefore, they have requested the government to regulate price controls on consumer products to help alleviate their financial burden so that they could deal with the rapidly increasing cost of living.