The auction was held on Monday with 201 bidders competing to buy jasmine rice from the government's 766,059-tonne stockpile from the 2005/2006 harvest.

Preecha Laohapongchana, caretaker deputy Commerce Minister, said yesterday that following the bargaining process the ministry would be able to increase the selling price from Bt8,000-Bt9,500 per tonne to Bt9,300-Bt9,700 per tonne above the market price. The current market price is Bt9,200-Bt9,300 per tonne.

"We are happy with the price we are getting from bidders, so we decided to release some of our stock to bidders, who are mostly millers," he said.

The ministry said the adjusted offers had lifted sales at the auction by 3 per cent to Bt2.73 billion.

Taxes on target

The Revenue Department has announced it expects to collect its target of Bt111.45 billion in corporate income tax for the first half, despite the fact listed companies' earnings are predicted to fall by 10 per cent.

The department said that although it anticipated some listed companies would announce a net-profit reduction in the first half of this year, the earning performance of overall non-listed companies had hardly been reduced at all.

Insurance chief

Sara Lamsam, president of Muang Thai Life Insurance, has been appointed president of the Thai Life Assurance Association.