The politicians, however, said they were willing to comply with laws and regulations while they insisted that they had never had any tax problems.

Issara Somchai, a Democrat politician and former social development and human security minister, told The Nation that he had no problems with the Revenue Department, though he had been summoned in February to clarify increased assets.

“They just asked how the assets increased so I gave my explanation and some related documents to them,” Issara said. “I submitted the tax form just like everyone else, and there have been no problems.”

He said he had recently bought a plot of land but it was not of a high value. He said he had also informed the National Anti-Corruption Commission of the additional asset.

Concerning the recent call by the Office, Issara said he was not certain what the issue was although he said he was ready to present himself and any documents if requested by authorities.

“If I have to pay additional tax, that’s fine. I can do that. They know where to find me and I am willing to abide by the law,” Issara said.

Phongthep Thepganjana, a Pheu Thai Party politician and former justice minister, said he had not been contacted by tax authorities but he was ready to cooperate. He said that normally politicians only had to declare assets to the NACC. He did not know why the Revenue Department had to be involved this time.

He said he submitted his tax form in line with regulations, regardless of the increase or decrease in his assets.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party politician Satit Wongnongtoey, who served as a Prime Minister’s Office minister in Abhisit Vejjajiva’s administration, told The Nation he had been contacted by telephone and informed he might need to present himself as well as some unspecified documents. While stressing he was ready to meet the authority, Satit said he thought it was an old issue.

Satit insisted he had not been involved in any “grey” business. He was just a politician who owned a private kindergarten school, he said.

The move to impound the money, pending further investigations, was confirmed by Narcotics Suppression Bureau deputy commissioner Pol Maj-General Chatree Phaisalsilp yesterday.

Akarakit, also known as “Benz Racing”, is charged with money-laundering in connection with the arrest of Laotian drug lord Xaysana Keopimpa.

Napapa met police on Friday and admitted the Bt1.5million was transferred to her by her husband, Chatree said.

She was quoted as saying the money was given to her in their husband-wife relationship and she did not know how Akarakit had acquired it.

“The reasons given for revoking my passports were all wrong,” Chaturon told The Sunday Nation. “The police reasoned that I had been issued with an arrest warrant and was about to flee the country. Neither claim was correct.”

Chaturon, who has served in four Cabinet posts, had two ordinary passports and a diplomatic one before they were revoked in 2015. This followed a request from the Royal Thai Police to the Foreign Ministry on the grounds that he had criticised the junta governmen.

On Friday, the Central Administrative Court retroactively overturned the Department of Consular Affairs’ order cancelling the politician’s passports.

In a petition filed last January, Chaturon said that he although he had records of being summoned to the military court by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), junta chief Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had permitted him to leave Thailand on many occasions.

“The police just overdid it,” Chaturon said. “The junta itself didn’t even go this far.”

Breaking a long silence on Friday, Thaksin expressed frustration at being blamed for, or linked to, deadly attacks, including the 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing and attacks in the deep South.

His family, he said, was also being targeted, referring to the ongoing attempt to collect tax on Shin Corp shares that were sold more than a decade ago. Thaksin, living in exile, insisted on his loyalty to the monarchy, and said coups were dangerous for the country.

NCPO spokesman Colonel Piyapong Klinpan said Thaksin’s post may have stemmed from feelings of homesickness. If the former prime minister wished to see the country progress, he should stop hurting it and distorting facts. Piyapong said Thaksin should instead return and go through due legal processes.

“The CEOs I met in Bangkok may not be ready to take on the digital challenges as more shoppers make purchases via phones and tech devices,” said the group’s online expert Anson Bailey.

Thailand should pay attention to countries such as China, where online has revolutionised shopping, said Baily who is based in Hong Kong.

About 14 per cent of shopping in mainland China is online because of acute shortage of stores in a country that only recently emerged from a century of warlords and Communist revolt.

In other Asian lands that were spared wars, there are ample number of malls, making online sales less spectacular. Thais made about 11 million online purchases a year – about 4 per cent of the total market.

But the trend is up, Bailey said, as traditional shoppers grow old and die, leaving the field to younger consumers who are more prone to dial for goods and services.

“Many CEOs seem complacent and unaware about how younger consumers use smartphones,” said the Manchester-born marketer who has lived in Asia for 20 years.

He cited KPMG’s latest survey by consumer chief Willy Kruh that warns of the need to adopt new technologies in a fast-changing landscape.

To be sure, of the total US$22 trillion (Bt760 trillion) consumer market, online takes up about 8 per cent of the share.

But the growth is faster in digital, Bailey said, after meeting young online entrepreneurs from Asia this week. They are aggressively pushing to have a piece of the world’s digital retail space worth $1.8 trillion.

Bailey uses China as a role model for success, citing the success of Alibaba and Alipay under the guidance of founder Jack Ma. “Ma succeeded because he made online shopping simple, quick and transparent”.

Recent studies suggested Asia could make up more than half the world’s total online purchases by 2030.

Bailey conceded that not all Asian markets are embracing online with the same zeal as China. Online retailing in Japan, for example, accounts for just 5 per cent of market share.

It also remains hard to convince local retailers that Siam Paragon, MBK, Emporium-and Emquartier will be replaced by digital shops anytime soon.

KPMG acknowledges this reality and offered a more pragmatic solution where the new and old systems tie up to survive.

The biggest concern among consumers, said Kruh’s survey, is security where cyber hackers have made off with billions of dollars every year.

Kruh noted 63 per cent of respondents said “protecting their data and information was most important”.

Consumers are not only worried about fraud but what bankers, insurers and retailers do with their personal information.

Bailey said many companies such as Alibaba are now following Google’s example by calling itself a “data company” with the ability to unlock users consumption pattern.

These players assume consumers are happy to be exploited with impunity. The issue may have legal implications and affects issue matters such as trust and privacy.

Indeed, the greater challenge may be to reconcile the new divide between the “haves and have-nots”. For a huge segment of the world’s population, the digital platform is beyond their means.

Bailey is convinced that as “Baby Boomers” aged between 52 and 69 die off, there will only be two remaining groups that will boost online sales.

These are “Generation X”, aged between 36 and 51 and “Millennials”, aged 20-37.

“These people love Uber and AirB&B,” he said. “They grew up with them.”

That may be so but Thailand has made both illegal and for every fan of these services, there are many more opponents.

Private Yuthinan Boonniam was hospitalised with a swollen face and bruises before his death early on Saturday.

Facebook user “Bom Lung Lang” shared his pictures, with a caption saying that the young man was imprisoned in military jail for violating military rules and that he was severely beaten.

It was further reported that Yuthinan seriously suffered from injuries of his internal organs. The medical team performed cardiac resuscitation four times but failed to save his life. He passed away at 5 am on Saturday.

Yuthinan was not the first serving conscript to be beaten to death. In April last year, Private Songtham Mudmad was beaten to death at a military base in Yala’s Bannang Sata district. In 2011, Private Wichian Phuaksom was tortured to death at a training camp in Narathiwat.

The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) is investigating 986 cases against officials involved with the scheme, especially in stocking rice bought from farmers, Prayong Preeyajit, the PACC’s secretary-general, said on Saturday. He said the organisation had completed half the number of cases.

Prayong said the office has submitted their names to their chiefs to also proceed with disciplinary action, in addition to criminal charges.

Their names have also been forwarded to the Anti-Money Laundering Office for investigation, which could help establish links to people above them.

All the cases, he said, should be completed by June. The office estimates that their actions had caused damage to the state of around Bt 115 billion so far.

In his latest Facebook post, Thaksin expressed his frustrations at being blamed or linked to major bad incidents that have occurred in the country, including the explosions in front of the Erawan Shrine as well as bombings in the far South.

His family, he said, was also being targeted, referring to the ongoing attempt to collect tax on Shin shares that were sold more than a decade ago.

This was the first major reaction from Thaksin after two years of silence.

Thaksin insisted on his loyalty to the monarchy, and said coups were dangerous for the country.

Colonel Piyapong Klinpan, spokesperson for the NCPO, said Thaksin’s post may have stemmed from his feelings of home-sickness. If the former prime minister wishes to see the country make progress, he should stop hurting it and distorting facts.

Piyapong said, instead, Thaksin should come back and go through the legal process.

The girl’s father Preecha Chayintu ,27, who is a rescue volunteer, said that the fire broke out at about 5am at a clothing warehouse, so he, his wife and his daughter rushed to the scene to join the firefighting team in putting the blaze out.

Piyada Chayintu, or “Nong Pew”, is a Grade 3 pupil at Phra Tamnak Suan kularb School.

The little girl has accompanied her parents in fighting fires for three years. She has been recognised as a “child fire fighter” with a label on her sleeve.

Although Piyada does not fight fires on the front line, her father said her duty is to pick up the fire hose, and keep an eye on water pumps and the electricity generator.

Earlier this week, a video clip went viral on social media showing a fierce female taxi driver rudely chasing her passengers out of her cab. A young boy in the cab burst into tears because of her aggressive behaviour, and fell down as she roughly forced the boy’s family out of the vehicle.

The clip has delivered another blow to the diminishing popularity of taxi services.

On Wednesday, a survey revealed that more than 70 per cent of respondents expressed support for the ride-sharing Uber and GrabTaxi apps, saying they could be alternatives that would prompt normal taxis to improve their services.

Asked to name problems related to taxi services, 85.5 per cent said taxi drivers often refused to carry passengers, 42.4 per cent said taxi drivers intentionally increased fares by taking longer routes, and 35.2 per cent said drivers were very impolite.

The viral video clip portrayed the female taxi driver in such a bad light that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn told his subordinates that she should be brought to justice fast. “We will make sure she pays for all her past actions too,” he said.

The driver has been identified as Pussadee Anchanpas.

According to the Bang Khen Police Station’s superintendent Pol Colonel Amnart Intasuan, at least one arrest warrant has been issued for her.

The warrant is related to a 2015 incident in which she chased her passengers out of her cab and sped away with their valuables.

“We suspect that it’s not the only offence this driver has committed,” Amnart said. He also urged people to alert police if they knew her whereabouts.

The Land Transport Department has also acted on Pussadee’s case, checking her background and dispatching officials to her registered residence in Samut Prakan’s province to find her.

Pussadee’s driving licence expired on December 29, 2015.