Streetwise: BOT plays down woes over counterfeit notes

The bad news about fake banknotes has not stopped yet. Sunny Tour managing director Pichit Bunphalamlert suggested that the Bank of Thailand recall all Bt1,000 notes and print new ones that are more counterfeit-proof. He feared that if the situation worsened it could affect trade in Singapore and Malaysia, where some transactions are made in baht.

The Bank of Thailand promptly brushed aside the possibility, citing that it was unnecessary, given the low rate of forgery, 5-to-7 notes per million compared to 70-to-100 for the US dollar.

Indeed, boosting its confidence that there is no need to recall the notes in circulation, the central bank says the fake notes are not quite perfect, particularly to those who care about checking the watermarks and the smoothness of the note surface.

It should be heartening to know that merchants in Laos still welcome Bt1,000 bank notes. A merchant noted that she has been selling products to Thais for a long time and can tell fake notes from real ones. Moreover, thanks to the broadcast of Thai TV programmes to the country, the merchants have been informed of the tips to identify the fake notes.

Hmm, sorry about those consumers who don't pay for their food with the large banknotes. I guess you will need to live with the difficulty for a while, until all the counterfeiters are arrested and all the fake notes are destroyed.

Confusion over alcohol

As Thailand has become more health conscious, it has become harder and harder to market products considered unhealthy like tobacco and alcoholic drinks.

Starting this year, retailers are prohibited from putting alcohol in New Year gift baskets. A question pops up: are they really barred by law to put the product in the baskets?

Yesterday, people who represent the tourism, Thai hotels, restaurants, retailing and alcohol businesses asked the Law Society of Thailand to interpret the Alcohol Control Act, to give them clear guidelines about what they can and cannot do.

The representatives said no agencies or units have made it clear what the rules are. All they did was say that doing this and that was wrong.

The good news is that creativity prevails under pressure. Big C in Nakhon Sawan was found yesterday to have put whisky bottles in cake boxes, before putting the boxes into gift baskets. It reminded me of youngsters who sneak alcohol into parties in paper bags.