Duengdao Sombutsir, senior director of the central bank's Banknote Management Group, said the level of counterfeiting had jumped by 105.6 per cent from 2005.

Last year 10,055 counter-feit notes, or 66 per cent, were discovered by police while the BOT and commercial banks discovered the rest.

About 60 per cent of these were in denominations of Bt1,000. The next most prevalent forgeries were Bt100s, which accounted for 25.6 per cent of those identified, and this was followed by Bt50 notes, representing 8.1 per cent of those found. There were also nearly 700 Bt500 and 270 Bt20s found.

Despite the high number of Bt1,000 forgeries, Duengdao

said the old version of the Bt100 note without the metallic hologram was the most popular

target, though the authorities had not picked up many of these.

Bt500 notes, which incorporated the hologram, were more difficult to forge.

"Forgers like to copy the old version of banknotes, but Bt500 notes that do not have the hologram have been taken out of circulation," she said.

However, Bt20 banknotes, which are printed by the BOT, make up about 30 per cent of the total banknotes in circulation, with Bt100s totalling about 20 per cent of all banknotes.

The production of Bt50 and Bt500s is less because they not popular denominations with the public.

She said counterfeits were mainly passed at outdoor markets and petrol stations, where vendors and cashiers did not have time to check them.

Last year 68.2 per cent of counterfeits were found in the central and eastern regions, followed by 14.9 per cent in the north, with 13.9 per cent and 3 per cent found in the Northeast and the South respectively.

The central bank expects to print 2,100-2,500 million banknotes this year, compared with 2,300 million banknotes in 2006. This is expected to rise to 3,000 million when its new printing plant becomes fully operational next year.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation