Sumon Mathidol, 50, reported the discovery to Mueang Samut Prakan police on Sunday afternoon, wanting it recorded that she had returned the bag to its owner, a gynaecologist from Chon Buri’s Si Racha district.

Daily News reported that the relieved physician, who was not named, rewarded the bus conductor with two packets of snacks, a gesture that has elicited criticism on social media for being such a paltry recompense.

The doctor had apparently withdrawn the cash that morning to transfer it to a bank in Samut Prakan’s Mueang district.

He took a bus from Sri Racha to Bangkok and at the Bang Na intersection switched to air-conditioned bus No 511 on which Sumon was the conductor. When he disembarked in Samut Prakan, he forgot about the bag sitting at his feet, only realising his mistake when he went to the bank to deposit the money. The doctor went to the bus depot on Soi Crocodile Farm and was reunited with Sumon and his cash.

Sumon told police she had found the bag while tidying the bus at the terminus and turned it over to the depot chief while she reported her fare sales to the cashier. The depot chief found the cash inside and asked her to be a witness while he counted it.

The two were trying to figure out how to contact the owner when the gynaecologist arrived with his bank passbook as proof of ownership.

Sumon and the doctor took the depot chief’s advice and together notified police of the incident.

The reported reward of two snack packets was criticised widely among social media users as inappropriate for the return of Bt1.12 million.

According to the Civil and Commercial Code’s Section 1324, a person who finds lost property and returns it to the owner may claim a reward of 10 per cent of the value of the property worth up to Bt30,000, and five per cent of the additional value.

In a case where the property is given to police who then locate the owner, 2.5 per cent of the value of the property shall also be paid as a fee to the government agency, not exceeding Bt1,000.

Section 1323 requires a person who finds lost property to deliver it to or inform without delay the owner or any other person entitled to receive it, or to deliver it within three days to police and inform them of the circumstances of how it was found. Found property must also be kept with reasonable care until it is returned.

“The figures are equivalent to 0.78 per cent of the country’s gross domestic products,” the foundation’s deputy manager Dr Bundit Sornpaisarn said.

He said cigarettes therefore posed a threat to sustainability.

“Smoking has also threatened the future of youth,” Bundit added.

A 2014 survey found 547 Thai youths started smoking every day, and young smokers had a higher chance of getting involved in other unhealthy habits such as drinking, drug abuse, late-night entertainment and gambling.

Disease Control Department’s deputy director general Dr Suthep Petchmark said Thailand had developed various innovative tools to control the use of tobacco.

“We have ratified the World Health Organisation – Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” he said.

He pointed out that the Tobacco Control Act 2017 had already taken effect in Thailand on July 4.

The law has introduced additional measures to protect non-smokers’ rights and to try and prevent youths from taking up the habit.

Key measures in the law include a ban on selling tobacco products to people aged under 20, and a ban on people aged under 18 selling tobacco products.

The measures also include a ban of selling tobacco products at religious sites, hospitals and pharmacies, all educational institutes, and public parks, zoos and amusement parks.

There is also a ban on all forms of tobacco advertising and marketing, and on tobacco businesses conducting corporate social responsibility activities.

 Sonca is forecast to make landfall over Vietnam on Tuesday before being downgraded to a tropical depression as it moves through Laos into a low-pressure cell in Thailand’s upper North and Northeast, said Thai Meteorological Department director-general Wanchai Sakudomchai on Monday.

Although less severe than Talas, Sonca would still bring abundant rain with isolated heavy to very heavy downpours in various areas, particularly Nong Khai, Nong Bua Lamphu, Udon Thani, Bung Kan, Sakhon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan, Wanchai said.

The storm would also bring rains to the East and some Central Thailand provinces including Bangkok, he added.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Prevention Department said 23 provinces had been hit by floods from July 5-22, and Ayutthaya, Phichit, Uttaradit and Phayao had not yet recovered. Mae Hong Son authorities are preparing for floods and landslides in the wake of Sonca, and the Pai River is brimming.

Lampang province officials reported that flooding hit low-lying homes and sections of Tambon Ban Sa in Chae Hom district on Sunday night. Chiang Rai’s Mae Lao River overflowed, sending floodwaters up to 50cm deep to low-lying riverside homes on Tambon Bua Sali in Muang district, while there was a 50-metre-long landslide along a road in Mae Fa Luang district.

Seventy riverside homes in Pan district were flooded by runoff from Mae Khao River. Floods on Tambon Tap Khlo in Phichit’s Tap Khlo district forced Tap Khlo Municipal School and Buraparat Wittayakarn School to suspend classes on Monday and Tuesday.

Many homes and roads in low-lying parts of the Tambon Tap Khlo municipality have been submerged since Sunday, when runoff from the Phetchabun Mountain Range caused the Wang Daeng River to overflow. The situation improved in the afternoon, leaving only 100 homes in the worst-hit Talad Tai and Suan Pho communities still inundated.

Officials brought in machines to drain water from affected areas, and said they expected the situation to be back to normal within one or two days if there was no more rainfall. In Pathum Thani’s Sam Khok district, officials were on alert to prepare manpower and tools to tackle flooding caused by the northern runoff, which would hit the province at the same time as seasonal seawater inflows on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Riverside residents were told to move their belongings to higher grounds.

The temporary centre will operate for 15 days from Monday until August 7 in line with another 100 such temporary centres nationwide.

The centres will process employers’ requests to hire migrant workers and verify papers to issue a document equivalent to a temporary passport. Workers’ will present the document to Immigration Police when they apply for a border pass or passport and come back into the Kingdom legally with a proper visa and health check.

Sa Kaew Employment Office head Wasan Palas said that workers returning with a border pass could work in Thailand for three months while those holding a passport could work for up to two years.

The Royal Decree on Managing the Work of Aliens 2017 – which carries heavy fines for offenders such as Bt400,000 to Bt800,000 for employing illegal foreign workers – has been in effect since June 23. It led to employers laying off their illegally-hired migrant workers, resulting in thousands of them heading back to their home countries of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos and causing a labour shortage in various sectors.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoked his special powers as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) chief, under Article 44, to suspend four key articles of the decree that prescribe harsher penalties until the end of this year to allow further review.

The NCPO also had the Labour Ministry set up 100 temporary centres to let employers register their illegal migrant workers.

Construction contractor Thonglor Thongkhao, 48, said he had two Cambodian workers and one Lao worker whose papers either expired or didn’t exist, so he took them to register at the Sa Kaew centre to prevent any future problems.

He said he paid workers, Thai or migrant, at Bt400-Bt500 a day. He said he resorted to using migrants because he could not find Thai workers.

Construction material shop owner Hattakarn Thawornying, 33, said she hired 10 Cambodian workers who used a border pass to apply for work permits, which must be renewed every three months, because the cost of getting a passport through an agent was as high as Bt20,000 per head.

The monarch will turn 65 on July 28.

The Office of the Permanent Secretary for the PM’s Office explains said the black ribbon symbolises the continued mourning over the passing of the current monarch’s father, HM the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The office posted the dress code guideline on Facebook but makes it clear that it does not apply to members of the public.

“People in general are not required to comply with this dress rule,” it says.

The government has planned to organise alms-giving ceremonies across the country to celebrate the King’s birthday on Friday morning.

Similar rituals will also be held at Thai embassies and Thai temples overseas.

In a related development, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has vowed to facilitate all activities that are held in honour of the King.

Military units are now instructed to conduct volunteer activities in the King’s honour between July 28 and August 3.

The workers had reportedly been illegally taken to Thailand by traffickers and kept in a compound in Mahachai in Samut Sakhon. The AAC rescued them on July 18 with the help of the Thai authorities, said Ye Min from the committee.

“They are from Thanatpin and Nyaunglebin townships in Bago Region. The brokers arranged work passes and sent them to Thailand. They took them via Htikhi with a seven-day border pass. And then they kept them in a compound in Mahachai. We knew their location after some of them ran away from the traffickers,” he said.

One freed worker said: “The brokers said we will have a job in Thailand. We gave them Ks650,000 each. They told us we could go to Thailand and sent us through Htikhi. We have been locked up in a compound in Mahachai for over one month. We have no job and some of them asked for help from the AAC.”

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Thai army, anti-human trafficking police and labour affairs protection group cooperated to rescue the stranded workers, said Ye Min.

A total of 108 Burmese workers were being kept in the compound.

If executives of CPF, a listed company, are found guilty they could face up to one year in prison and a fine of up to Bt400,000.

Sumet Mahosot, director-general of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, said the department filed the criminal case on July 19 over the five deaths last month.

A Chulalongkorn University student fell into sewage at the plant and four CPF employees tried to rescue her. All the deaths were due to toxic air and a lack of oxygen. The executives were accused of not informing its employees about the dangers of the site where the incident took place.

Warning signs were not erected at the site, where limited air flows, and barriers were not put up to stop people entering the restricted area.