'Sorry, no change'

Refusing banknotes for payment is against the law as laid down in the Currency Act.

That's bad new for shop owners who refuse to accept Bt1,000 notes, fearful that they might be fooled by one of the fakes in circulation.

"If a customer lodges a complaint against you, you risk being prosecuted," Mueang Khon Kaen Police Station superintendent Colonel Sujin Nijpanic confirms.

Rampant counterfeiting

A large number of smallscale vendors have refused to accept Bt1,000 banknotes on grounds of rampant counterfeiting. Vendors at a major market in Khon Kaen, for example, are seeing fake ban¬knotes on a daily basis. Moreover, a suspect just arrested has admitted he sold counterfeit Bt1,000 notes with a face value of several million baht in recent months.

Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner MajGeneral Amnuay Nimmano says that though the Currency Act makes it an offence to deny payment by banknotes, it fails to mention a punishment.

"We will have to use the Consumer Protection Act," Amnuay says.

The relevant section of the Consumer Protection Act bans unfair adverts and stipulates three months in jail and a maximum fine of Bt30,000 for offenders.

"So it's clear any shop owner putting up a board say¬ing that their shop does not accept Bt1,000 banknotes as payment will face legal pun¬ishment," says Amnuay. "But it's not clear how we can take action against vendors who verbally decline Bt1,000 banknotes."