Ministry cancels two more licences

The department had already cancelled the licences of 13 companies after alleging that Chinese businessmen had used fake Thai nationality documents to conduct tourism-related businesses, in which Thais must hold a majority share under the FBA.
The two latest companies are Zean Shabu Shabu Co, which runs a restaurant in Phang Nga, and Natural Bay Resort in Phuket.
Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the department, said that after it investigated 327 companies in nine provinces in the first half of this year, 15 had been suspected of breaching the FBA. They were 11 restaurants, two tourism-related businesses, one souvenir shop, and one car-rental business. Those companies will continue to face an in-depth investigation.
This month, the department will inspect companies in Bangkok.
In addition, the department reported since the new Secured Transactions Act was implemented on July 2, a total of 38,200 small and medium-sized enterprises had applied for loans totalling Bt162 billion from banks, as they now could use a wide range of secured assets as guarantees for the banks.
Under the new law, instead of using a mortgage or having to pawn their assets as business security, SMEs are able to use their assets, raw materials, inventories, aircraft, freight, patents, copyrights and trademarks as guarantees for acquiring loans from financial institutions, or to secure their liabilities. During the past 10 days, most SMEs taking advantage of the new law have used their Book Bank bankbooks as security for their loans, followed by inventory, machinery, vehicles, and lists of debtors.
The department also reported that new company registrations in June rose by a strong 15 per cent year on year and by 36 per cent from the previous month to 5,916, thanks partly to the imminent Secured Transactions Act.
In the first half of this year, 31,792 new companies were registered, up by 1 per cent, while 6,854 firms closed down. In June alone, 1,392 companies shut down.
Pongpun said the rising number of new companies was attributed to positive measures that the government had implemented to promote investment, the special-economic-zones project, and strong tourism growth.
Her department hopes to see 60,000 new companies established this year.