Speaking at a press conference at the Council of State office, Khamron said alcohol caused Bt1 billion in losses per day and created 700 new drinkers every day.

He said they were disappointed with the Council of State's decision that the Food and Drug Administration had no mandate to comprehensively ban alcohol adverts.

Although banning alcohol adverts would not solve all the problems, it should be followed by other measures such as higher taxes, stricter licences for selling alcoholic drinks and zoning, Khamron suggested

RICE-PLEDGING SCHEME :BAAC reports loss of Bt40 billion

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) yesterday reported a loss of Bt40 billion from the government's rice-pledging programme to the Finance Ministry.

However, the losses from the scheme, in which the government intervenes to buy rice from farmers at more than the market price, is not much greater than in the previous years.

Finance Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula said yesterday that the bank was proceeding with solving the problem. For example, the BAAC is undergoing organisational restructuring, particularly the top management.

BAAC president Thiraphong Tangthirasunan said Bt23 billion of the total loss came from the rice intervention programme for the 2004/2005 harvest season, because the pledging price was 30 per cent higher than market price.

However, evaluation of the intervention programme for the 2005/2006 season has not yet been completed. It is forecast that there will be a loss of about Bt20 billion with the intervention price at 10 per cent higher than market price.