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Published on March 29, 2008

   After construction is finished later this year, 31 German train carriages will be installed in early 2009. After three months of testing, the rail link will be ready to transport passengers from Makkasan to Suvarnabhumi Airport, engineer Banchongsak Panthong said yesterday.

Pump prices rise

Shell, Petronas and IRPC will raise petrol and diesel prices by 50 satang per litre today, pushing 95-octane petrol to Bt34.59 per litre and diesel to Bt31.44.

   Retailers complained that their marketing margins were declining on renewed spikes in global oil prices. The margin for petrol is now Bt1 per litre and for diesel 40-50 satang.

Egat speeds projects

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is speeding up its hydropower projects at six irrigation dams to reduce power generating costs.

   The projects have a combined capacity of 78.7 megawatts, requiring a Bt4.4-billion investment. The power is expected to feed into the system in 2010-2011.

Pay car tax online

The Land Transport Department is set to accept online payments for vehicle taxes through cooperation with 10 banks.

   Starting on Tuesday, the service is expected to welcome payments from 200,000 vehicle owners in the initial stage. Each year, 27 million cars are subjected to Bt16 billion of taxes.

New Big C card

Big C Supercentre has teamed up with Cetelem and MasterCard Worldwide to launch the new Big C Mastercard, expecting to welcome 100,000 new cardholders this year.

   The new Big C MasterCard is anticipated to increase customer spending by 25 per cent or a total of Bt2 billion - Bt2,000 per cardholder.

Unleaded kitchens

Tesco Lotus yesterday launched a campaign for unleaded kitchen utensils at its food centres, urging all food shops nationwide to replace 335 leaded noodle boilers.

   The boilers are estimated to cost Bt2 million.

   The campaign will also promote plates made of standard materials for the safety of diners. 

Prakit heads THA

Prakit Chinamourphong was yesterday elected president of the Thai Hotels Association. He replaces Chanin Donavanik, who served for two consecutive terms.

   Prakit has been vice president of the THA for many years. He represents executives of the Imperial Group of Hotels and Resorts.

   He said he would emphasise more online marketing channels to help operators and add more training activities to improve human resources. 

 The Nation