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Theeraj Athanavanich, deputy director general of the Public Debt Management Office, reported that Thailand’s outstanding public debt on October 31 was Bt5.98 trillion – 42.71 per cent of gross domestic product. 
Of the figure, Bt4.49 trillion was government debt, Bt984.95 billion was non-financial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) debt, Bt487.04 came from the government guaranteeing SOEs debt and Bt21.3 billion was owed by other government agencies. 
Compared with the total debt on September 30, the debt level had decreased Bt3.2 billion.

TOT SEEKING BT62 BN IN DAMAGES FROM PHONE OPERATOR AIS FOR AMENDMENT CONCESSIONS 

The Ministry of the Digital Economy and Society will report to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha that TOT is seeking damages of Bt62 billion from Advanced Info Service (AIS) for the sixth and seventh AIS concession amendments.
The two amendments are among the cases cited by the Supreme Court in its 2010 finding of abuse of power by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The state agency has sought the damages via the arbitration process since late last year. However, the Arbitration Office has yet to finish formulating the arbitration panel to consider the case.
The ministry held a meeting yesterday with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, the Auditor-General’s Office, the Attorney-General’s Office and TOT to seek ways to have the two amendments scrapped by the Cabinet, as recently ordered by the premier. The ministry will report the results to the premier.
TOT had owned the AIS concession, which expired in September last year. 

POLICE RAID FOUR SHOPS ACCUSED OF SELLING ILLEGAL SOFTWARE AS ANTI- PIRACY CAMPAIGN DEEPENS
 
The Economic and Cyber Crime Division  of the Royal Thai Police has raided four stores in Bangkok accused of selling pirated software. 
The police raids targeted retail shops that load illegal software on to new PCs. The software sells for a few hundred baht and often contains malware and botnets and opens users up to cyber risks. Such schemes can generate millions of baht in sales for shops.
The raids come against the backdrop of a national campaign to reduce piracy across the country.
 Two of the raided shops were in a shopping mall in the Srinakarin Road area, one was in the Happyland Center and the fourth was in a mall in the Ratchaprarop Road area. Employees at the stores are accused of knowingly loading illegal software on to d new PCs, opening the PCs up to malware and other security risks.
In the raid on the shop in the Srinakarin Road area, police found shop employees with a variety of illegal software, including copies of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. The employees stand accused of widely distributing such illegal software.
In the other raids, police found the shops had deployed the same sales strategy – targeting buyers of new PCs with offers of illegal software. A wide variety of pirated Microsoft software was offered by shop employees – some for as little as a few hundred baht.
Employees and owners of the shops are being charged with violating the Thai Copyright Act and could face from six months to four years in jail plus a fine of between Bt100,000 and Bt 800,000. 
 Police say that they are cracking down on both traditional retail sellers of illegal software as well as growing numbers of online sellers.
 Earlier this year, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha asked the public for cooperation in reducing copyright violations in Thailand through a “Don’t buy, don’t use and don’t sell,” campaign. Later, the Department of Intellectual Property reinforced Prayut’s policy by initiating anti-piracy campaigns.
While Thailand’s software piracy rate has been significantly reduced over the plast decade, there are renewed concerns about the link between illegal software and malware and cyber-crime. Thailand’s software piracy rate has fallen from 80 per cent in 2006 to 69 per cent today. Yet, Thailand remains a focal point for cyber criminals.