Lottery ticket vendors hope for a Samak government

Lottery ticket vendors hope for a Samak government

Former two- and three-digit lottery sellers have welcomed the People Power party's (PPP) victory in the Dec 23 election. Representatives Natthachai Natcharanusorn and Wanna Hokanya took flowers to PPP headquarters yesterday to congratulate them on their victory.

They told party deputy secretary-general Sukhumpong Ngonkham they wanted a PPP-led government, headed by Samak Sundaravej, to restart the two- and three-digit lottery as soon as possible.

They said that on Jan 4, lottery sellers nationwide will turn up at PPP headquarters again to give the party moral support.

Mr Sukhumpong said relaunching the two- and three-digit lottery was part of PPP's policy platform.

The lottery, started under the Thai Rak Thai government, was scrapped after the coup last year.

The Assets Scrutiny Committee found the lottery broke the Government Lottery Office (GLO) law because the government did not send the money earned from lottery sales to state coffers but directly allocated the money to support its ''populist'' policies.

The National Legislative Assembly has recently passed a new law allowing the GLO to relaunch the two- and three-digit lottery.

Meanwhile, a network of northern community liquor producers in Phayao will push the new government, whoever forms it, to overhaul liquor taxes.

Chavalit Horprasertwong, a technical adviser to the network, said the government should revamp taxes to ensure equity among liquor producers.

Mr Chavalit said taxes should be set according to the alcohol content in the liquor _ the higher the content, the higher the tax.

Liquor producers should also be taxed according to the volume of liquor they make. Those producing higher volumes should also pay higher taxes, he said.

The network will also encourage the government to change the way tax is imposed on community liquor producers.

It says the tax imposed on producers of community liquor who distribute liquor in their immediate neighbourhood should be lower than the tax on producers who distribute their community liquor in several areas.