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Once Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij gives the signal, the office can to proceed with its plan, he said.

Pradit said the goal was to effectively legitimise what is currently underground betting, a policy which has been approved by the Council of State.

Under the online scheme, 60 per cent of the lotto sale proceeds will be punters' winnings, 28 per cent will be remitted to the Finance Ministry and 12 per cent reserved as Government Lottery Office expenses.

Registrations down

New company registrations continued to drop last month, by 7.74 per cent year on year, due to the global economic meltdown, the Business Development Department said yesterday.

Only 2,978 companies registered in May, while 901 companies shut down operations, down by 5.65 per cent from the same month last year.

During the first five months of the year, 15,752 firms were registered, down from 18,837 companies during the same period last year. A total of 4,854 firms were closed in the same period, down 2.31 per cent year on year.

Thai paper sheds 60

Bi-weekly Thai-language business newspaper Thansetthakij laid off 60 staff last Friday as part of its cost-reduction programme, its executive editor Chaiwat Wanitwattana said yesterday.

Seven of the retrenched staff were reporters, with the rest from other departments. The newspaper has paid legal compensation to those laid off.

Thai architects can

Parliament has accepted a proposal by the Association of Siamese Architects to allow Thai architects to contend for the contract to draw up building plans for the new Parliament complex.

This marks a change from the existing policy of using a turnkey system for the new Parliament, said association president Thaweejit Chandrasakha.

Thai architects can now submit plans for committee consideration. The committee will select 10 of the submitted plans within two months, before weeding them down to five contenders. Construction of the new Parliament is expected to begin next year.

SEC suspends audi

The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended the auditing services of Somchai Kurujitkosol, the auditor of SEC Auto Sales and Service during 2005-2007, for two years for his failure to spot irregularities in the firm's financial statements.

The watchdog said in a statement that Somchai had approved the financial statements unconditionally without any remark on possible irregularities. He is also liable for criminal punishment after the SEC filed a charge with the Department of Special Investigation.

The SEC earlier filed charges against the company's former chairman and four accomplices for alleged embezzlement and the falsification of auto sales documents. - The Nation