Briefs

Thailand witnessed improved household spending of Bt580 billion last month, MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, the deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs, said yesterday.
The government collected higher-than-expected value-added tax of more than Bt40 billion in January, he added.
Higher household spending was contributed to by falling oil prices, as well as a rise in the number of people employed following increased new-factory openings, said the deputy PM.
Pridiyathorn estimated that the government could collect between Bt38 billion and Bt39 billion in VAT this month.
During the eight-month period from June to January, the number of registered new factories stood at 4,200, of which 2,041 were already open for operations, employing 99,000 workers.
The remaining factories are expected to be opened in the next four to five months.
Pridiyathorn acknowledged, however, that the country’s exports might face difficulties this year due to the slowing economies of major trading partners such as the US, China, Japan and Europe. Nonetheless, he said he was confident that the Commerce Ministry would do its best to ensure that overseas shipments met the 4-per-cent growth target for the year.

SEC SUSPENDS INVESTMENT CONSULTANT
The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended Phanthira Phupradit, a capital-market investment consultant of Capital Nomura Securities, for receiving trading orders from a person who was not the owner of a securities-trading account and failure to keep a complete record of said orders.
After a report from Capital Nomura, the SEC probed the case and found that Phanthira had received trading orders from the person who was not the owner of the account without any written authorisation. Phanthira also admitted that she received trading orders from the non-owner of the account via mobile phone. Receiving trading orders from a person other than the owner of a securities trading account and failure to keep a complete record of the order were deemed as failures to perform duties with due care and professional competence. The SEC therefore suspended Phanthira from her duties for two months, effective from February 9.