Foundation for Consumers secretary-general Saree Ongsomwang said on Thursday that consumers had the right to complain about a product they had bought, and demand compensation.

Earlier, Mazda Sales (Thailand) Co Ltd filed a lawsuit against a group of 22 customers for Bt95 million in damages, accusing them of abuse of rights for complaining to various organisations about defects in their Mazda cars and seeking compensation. The customers had said two Mazda car models – XD High Plus and Sky Active – were found to have engine problems when speeding.

“I admire these customers who have come out to protect their rights and serve as an example for others. The Foundation for Consumers will assist them with the litigation,” Saree said.

“The company should express their gratitude to these customers, as they can honestly reflect on the problems in their products and can use their comments for product improvement. But by suing these customers, it seems the company is trying to silence the customers.”

She also urged the authorities to push forward the enforcement of Liability for Defective Products Bill, which will grant customers the right to ask sellers to repair their products twice, replace the product, or redeem the full amount within six months of purchase, while the onus will be on the sellers to prove that their products are not defective.

‘No intention to defame company’

Chalermpong Klabdee, legal head at the Centre for Customers’ Protection, said Mazda’s claim that the customers were abusing their rights and making excessive demands was invalid. Abuse of rights involves an intention to cause trouble to others, but in this case they were just seeking protection of their rights.

Chalermpong said in the end it was up to the court to decide whether this case could be considered as abuse of rights.

Pattakorn Theepabunrat, one of the customers whose car had a defect and was sued by Mazda, said that he did not intend to defame Mazda, but only |wanted the carmaker to solve the problem in its products.

“These defects in cars can be lethal, especially when the drivers face engine problems while driving at a high speed. We tried to get our cars fixed at the Mazda car repair centre, but it did not help and only cost us a lot of money and time,” Pattakorn said.

“Therefore, we decided to band together to suggest measures to solve this problem, but instead we were sued for our action to defend our rights.”

Mazda had released a statement earlier that they had sued these customers because they were asking for unrealistic terms of compensation, including that the company grant them a 10-year guarantee for their cars or cover a driven distance of 500,000 kilometres. Mazda said it had tried to negotiate with them and offered them a six-year guarantee or 180,000 kilometres, but the offer was turned down.

The Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS) on Friday announced its findings in a much-publicised dispute which showed a retired policeman was the owner of lottery tickets worth about Bt30 million, not a teacher who claimed he was the legitimate owner.

Institute director Somn Promaros told a press briefing that his office based its decision on the partial fingerprints found on the disputed lottery tickets.

“We have partial fingerprints of Charoon Wimul on the tickets that police sent to us to examine. We could not test the DNA on them because there was too many DNA on the tickets,” the director said.

The conflict over ownership of the winning tickets grabbed media headlines and drew public attention throughout the country after Preecha Kraikruan came forward to claim that he had bought the winning tickets from a vendor but they were stolen. Meanwhile, Charoon had already cashed the money in November.

Scrub typhus is spread to people through bites by infected chiggers (larval mites) and the latter through bites by female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, said Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, spokesman and deputy permanent secretary for the Public Health Ministry.

Though the two diseases occur year-round, the numbers of cases rise during the winter season.

From October 1, 2017 until January 12, 2018 there were 2,185 scrub typhus patients in Thailand two of whom died, said Opas. Scrub typhus symptoms include fever, headache (especially in the temples and forehead), body aches, and dry cough. Symptoms appear 10-12 days after being bitten. Some 40 per cent of patients also had “eschars”, dark red patches of dead skin tissue, around the skin areas where infected chiggers bit them. Some patients suffer from serious complications, such as pneumonia and encephalitis, which could turn deadly. Chiggers live in shaded humid bushes.

Opas also advised that people emerging from the forest should shower and wash their clothing right away to prevent chigger bites.

From October 1 until January 12, some 500 people were diagnosed with malaria. Symptoms include fever and headache as well as serious complication affecting the brain and blood, and kidney failure. Symptoms show 14 days after being bitten, Opas said.

The proposed law would allow application for reinstatement by those whose membership to the Social Security Office (SSO) Fund was previously suspended after they failed to make a monthly contribution for three months in a row to the fund or failed to make a full monthly contribution for nine months in one year. Applications for reinstatement could be made within one year after the law is put into effect.

SSO chief Suradech Waleeithikul said the law as now drafted would allow some 960,000 people who lost their “voluntary insured person status” to regain the SSO coverage. He said successful applicants would not be required to pay for missed past contributions but instead could start over.

He urged insured people to regularly check on their contribution consistency with the SSO office to prevent their membership being suspended without their knowledge. People can call the SSO hotline at 1506 for more details.

Insured person under Section 39 refers to those who had been an insured person under Section 33 (an employee who paid the monthly contribution for no less than 12 months) and then resigned within a six-month period and applied for designation as an insured person under Section 39. Those accepted into the programme must pay contributions to the Social Security Fund at a rate of Bt432 per month.

Mohamed Ikbal was arrested at his condominium room on Kalapapruek road in Bangkok’s Phasi Charoen district on January 14, said Immigration Police Bureau commissioner Pol Lt-General Sutthipong Wongpin at a press confererence on Friday morning.

Sutthipong said the bureau had learned that Ikbal was about to deliver passports to his clients, so they staked out the condominium entrance and arrested him as he left the building.

Police found one fake Indian passport and three fake Singapore passports on him. The passports also had fake Canadian visa stamps on their pages.

Ikbal admitted that he made the passports to sell for about Bt7,000 to Bt8,000 each, said Sutthipong.

Police searched his room and found a computer, a printer, and other tools for forging passports.

Sutthipong alleged that Ikbal has been making and selling forged passports to various groups for over 10 years. Thai and international security groups have been monitoring him for six months.

Sutthipong said Ikbal made the fake passports from scratch, instead of altering real ones. He is an expert in making French and Italian passports, said Suttipong.

Ikbal received orders via email from multiple client groups, including ISIS supporters, Sutthipong added.

The move is part of UKVI’s longstanding global strategy to modernise its visa operations and consolidate visa decision-making in large regional hubs, said a press release issued by the British Embassy to Thailand on Friday.

There will be no change to the current visa application process in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, or to overall service standards, the release said.

The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows visa decision-making to be independent of the country of application.

It will drive efficiency savings and achieve greater standardisation of visa decisions around the world, according to the release.

British Ambassador to Thailand, Brian Davidson, said the number of Thai nationals applying for UK visas and travelling to the UK rises every year.

“We are delighted at this growth as it shows the strength of the links between the two countries and that Thai people still love to visit the UK, whether for work, study, family or leisure,” he said in the release.

UKVI is committed to supporting these links and ensuring that the body continued to provide safe and secure visa decisions, excellent customer service and value for money to the UK taxpayer, he added.

Customers in Thailand are not expected to experience changes in visa service standards.

Visa applications would continue online, with people also submitting their biometrics and documents at two Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Bangkok and Chiang Mai managed by VFS-Global.

The reactions stemmed mainly from the fact that the description was reportedly based on outdated information and also that most the programmes failed just one Ohec criterion by not having enough permanent lecturers required for a programme.

“Some of our lecturers were furthering their studies during the years Ohec evaluated us,” Khon Kaen University president Assoc Professor Dr Kittichai Triratanasirichai said yesterday. “But now they are back at work.”

He said Ohec should not have included his university in the list of institutes with substandard programmes because that status could cause misunderstandings.

Earlier this week, Ohec announced that as many as 182 higher education programmes had not met its standards for the 2015 and 2016 academic years.

The list of the programmes together with the names of the institutes were also released on the Ohec website.

Following the release, Ramkhamhaeng University rector Wutisak Lapcharoensap threatened to take legal action against Ohec.

“Our university’s council has already passed a resolution to have university executives explore legal channels to take actions against or sue Ohec for damages,” he said.

Wutisak said some lecturers had retired and his university had to wait about one year for the Budget Bureau to prepare a budget for new lecturers to fill the vacant positions.

“Also it should be noted that the list just released by Ohec is not up to date,” he said.

Of 40 Ramkhamhaeng University’s programmes described as substandard by Ohec, 23 no longer existed, he added.

“Six others have already stopped recruiting students and we are going to close another programme,” Wutisak said.

Dhurakij Pundit University vice president Nit Petcharaks said yesterday that his institute had already either adjusted the number of lecturers in line with the Ohec criterion or closed the programmes that Ohec had voiced concerns about.

“Ohec secretary-general Dr Supat Jampathong, meanwhile, admitted that the recently released list of substandard programmes was not based on up-to-date information.

“But we have also explained that the list is based on information from the 2015 and 2016 academic years,” he said. Supat added that the Ohec had issued a resolution to release the list in the hopes of inducing relevant universities to quickly improve their programmes and to enable students to monitor progress.

Asked about legal threats from Ramkhamhaeng University, Supat said he was not angry about the reactions. He said he would be willing to quit his post if the release of information was seen as a disciplinary offence.

However, there seemed little probability that any decision on wage hikes – finalised on Wednesday by the government tripartite committee – would satisfy everyone. Business representatives have all along complained that they saw the wage hike as merely “tackling the symptoms” of economic problems, adding it would leave them shouldering increased costs of production and could result in worker layoffs.

Rangsit University deputy rector Anusorn Tamajai said wages should be hiked to Bt350 or Bt360 to improve the quality of workers’ lives.

The “rather slight” increase approved would be of little help for workers’ coping with high living costs and debt, while low-skilled workers would still not be able to save, Anusorn said.

The minimum wage hike should be a consistent rate nationwide because Thailand’s cost of living did not vary much depending on area, he said. Also, a flat-rate wage hike would reflect values of equality and allow labour unions to increase their bargaining power for fairer wages and welfare assistance, he said.

Chalee Loisung, chair of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC), called for a Bt360 flat-rate hike nationwide. The TLSC would meet on Monday to work out their stance opposing the government’s decision, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who is in charge of economic affairs, hailed the wage hike as stimulating the economy, which he said “obviously [emerged] from careful consideration by all sides”.

Workers would get a boost in their purchasing power, which would in turn allow private-sector companies to sell more products, he said.

Somkid said he had already instructed the Ministry of Commerce to implement controls to ensure that the prices of consumer items do not increase and are kept in line with the increase in wages.

The final details in the wage hike emerged on Wednesday after a seven-hour meeting of the committee tasked with reaching an agreement. The panel also recommended a trial “floating rate” wage hike in three provinces under the Eastern Economic Corridor scheme – Chon Buri, Rayong and Chacheongsao.

Somkid said that the proposed trial would be discussed at a later date as the government would first implement the core recommendations.

The nationwide minimum wage was raised from Bt300 to Bt310 last year after remaining static for three years from 2014 to 2016. With the new increase, the average nationwide minimum wage will be Bt315.97 per day.

Some business leaders were not happy with the relatively small increase.

Businesses would see an increase in operating costs without a corresponding ability to boost their production, said Pipat Luengnaru-emitchai, assistant managing director of research and financial institutions analyst at Phatra Securities Public Co Ltd.

Some companies would replace workers through automation, he said, while others with large numbers of workers who could not be replaced by machines could move their production base to other countries.

“This raises a challenge for business operators to adjust and boost their production to cover the wage hikes. If they fail, it will certainly lead to some impacts,” he said.

Some companies would replace workers through automation, he said, while others with large numbers of workers who could not be replaced by machines could move their production base to other countries.

“Such a significant hike as 10 per cent in some areas raises a challenge for business operators to adjust and boost their production to cover the wage hikes. If they fail, it will certainly lead to some impacts,” he said.

With the northeastern province of Buri Ram seeing its minimum wage hiked by Bt15 to Bt325 a day under the committee agreement, business operators there said they would have to shoulder increased costs until they passed it on to consumers by increasing prices.

The result would be negative for both workers and people in other professions whose incomes remained static, business figures argued.

Naiyana Thabwong, a wholesale and retail shop owner, said she employed 13 people and paid about Bt100,000 a month in wages. With the wage hike, she would have to shoulder more costs during a period of “slower economic conditions due to the shrinking sale volumes, because people are trying to save money”.

She said she might have to lay off some workers to ensure the business survived.

The new wage hike was an approach “tackling the symptoms” rather than solving the root problems in the economy, Naiyana said.

The Employers Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry vice president Tanit Sorat said he did not agree with raising wages because it would adversely affect small and medium-seized enterprises (SMEs).

It was also irrational to group poorer provinces with richer ones, such as Roi Et with Prachuap Khiri Khan or Kalasin with Nakhon Sawan province, he said. The SMEs in poor provinces could not afford the same costs, he said.

Even SMEs located in the greater Bangkok area with 200 or more employees would face rising costs of about 1.1 million per year, he estimated.

Low technology industries such as garments, leather and food processing could be hard hit and find it difficult to raise prices due to fierce competition, he said.

Under the operation, code named “Chaiya Sayop Pairee 61/2”, officers raided 59 locations across the country from January 12 to 19.

They seized 3.6 million yaba pills, two kilograms of “ice” crystal methamphetamine, 12 kilograms of marijuana and 770 grams of cocaine. They also seized 21 guns and 1,163 bullets as well as assets including 11 cars, two houses, 37 properties (condominium units and land), and Bt7.96 million in cash.

The operation aimed to crack down on four drug networks under alleged drug kingpin Jirat “Ek Ouan” Pensophonwitch who was arrested last September, and also suspected drugs leaders Thip-apa Raksasaeng, Thidarat Jitranont and Montri Wongboonlertchai.

The raids were conducted in Bangkok and jurisdiction areas under the Provincial Police regions 1, 4, 5 and 7.

Chakthip said police would also probe whether highway policeman Pol Lt-Colonel Thanakrit Nitsapan – the common-law husband of 31-year-old Thip-apa – was involved in his wife’s illegal activities.

Thip-apa was arrested on Monday over an alleged link to a larger drug ring allegedly led by Xaysana Keopimpha, a Lao who was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport in January 2017, and an alleged link to 500 kilograms of marijuana seized in Songkhla last October.

Thanakrit was taken into custody on Wednesday night, hours after the criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of conspiracy to possess marijuana for sale and taking assets in exchange for abetting a crime.

The officer denied knowing anything about drug trafficking as he said he thought the wife earned her living as a money-lender.

He has been suspended from duty pending the outcome of the investigation. He will be sent to apply for a detention order from Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Criminal Court today.

NSB chief Pol Lt-General Sommai Kongwisaisuk said police were confident they had solid evidence against Thanakrit and would probe further to arrest the couple’s accomplices.

Sommai suspected more police officers assisted Thanakrit. He said Thip-apa’s cosmetic surgery and a car with a hidden compartment helped her evade police arrest for nearly 10 years.