Briefs

Thai Life Insurance reported yesterday that its first-year premiums jumped by 57 per cent to Bt6.12 billion in the first half of the year.
In the same period, the company’s total premiums grew by 17 per cent to Bt23.27 billion.
Thai Life targets first-year premiums of Bt12 billion, up by 40 per cent, for all of 2012. It attributed the successful first half to strong performance by its 40,000 agents.
Apirak Thaipatanagul, chief executive officer, said that of the total sales, single-policy products accounted for Bt849.2 million and renewals for Bt16.3 billion, with a policy-persistency ratio of 92 per cent.
“Customers can now purchase policies through various channels such as DRTV [direct-response television], direct sales and bancassurance, which helps the company boost its sales and gain wider recognition.”

Root out graft, millers say
The Thai Rice Millers Association has urged the government to dispatch inspectors to prevent corruption and prevent losses from the pledging scheme.
Association president Charnchai Ratthananon said the government’s plan to send a team of inspectors from the Department of Special Investigation and the Royal Thai Police would prevent corrupt practices by unscrupulous officials and traders.
He said the association would cooperate with the government’s agencies as they worked to root out corrupt practices such as bringing in rice from neighbouring countries to cash in on the pledging scheme.
Meanwhile, a senior source in the Commerce Ministry said the pledging project had resulted in only a few cases of corruption, accounting for only 1 per cent of participants. The source said the government would stringently monitor the programme so that the it would not lose money meant to help farmers.
The source said the pledging scheme had cost about Bt200 billion over the past year. Most of that had gone to farmers to purchase about 20 million tonnes of paddy from the main and the second crops. – The Nation