The nine judges of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions will begin to unveil their personal judgments on Friday morning. The judges’ individual verdicts will then be presented as the court’s verdict later on this afternoon. The court will commence with the ruling process at 1:30 pm today.

The Excise Department will aim to balance public health policies and the need to protect domestic alcoholic beverage producers in its ongoing tax review, says Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij. The Finance Ministry wants to revise excise taxes under the principle that spirits with higher alcoholic content pay higher tax rates. At the same time, it also is aware of the need to protect domestic producers from overseas competitors. The Excise Department has a collection target of Bt360b for fiscal 2010 ending in September, an increase of 2% from last year.

The Central Administrative Court refused on Friday to give the go ahead to a subgroup of 30 suspended projects, that all 64 suspended projects could no longer appeal for relaxation of the requirements. To get up and running, they must conform to the law. Under the charter, all of the suspended projects have to conduct a health impact assessment (HIA) and hold a public hearing, as well as seek opinions from the yet-to-be-established independent environmental body. One of the 30 projects is PTT’s sixth gas separation plant. (The Nation)

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban on Wednesday said he would not allow the Red Shirt protesters to close Suvarnabhumi Airport, while ruling out enforcement of the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The government will consider liberalising the Foreign Business Act to make the country more open to foreign investment and to comply with free trade agreements to which it has committed, says Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot. Facilitating investment in the country is the key to its economic growth. Making Thailand more attractive to foreign firms is a key part of this strategy, the deputy minister said.

To end the legal deadlocks halting construction works to 64 megaprojects relating to the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong, a final process to ensure constitutionally-required health and environementrelated assessments are conducted has began after a preliminary selection process was approved yesterday. To form a 13-member independent commission to make sure Constitution’s Article 67 was complied with in all projects, a selection process to nominate the 13 members would be conducted by a 18-member selection panel. The 13- member commission would be selected within 60 days, after the soon-to-come completion of the establishment of the 18-member selection panel. (The Nation)

Thailand will make business transactions easier and faster to conduct in order to move into the list of the “10 best countries for doing business” this year. The Business Development Department plans to modernise and re-engineer its operations to become an e-department for facilitating business registrations as part of its plan for 2010. (The Nation)

Small businesses are at a disadvantage with the suspension of the 76 investment projects at Map Ta Phut, as their work services larger firms, bankers say. Vorapak Tanyawong, a senior executive vice-president for Siam Commercial Bank, said the court-ordered suspension of permits for projects at the industrial estate mainly affected small and medium enterprises that rely on large companies as supplier or contractors.

The Finance Ministry will propose to the cabinet today that the excise tax for spas be waived to help support the domestic tourism industry. Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said the proposal would cut the tax to zero from 10% now. Under the law, the excise tax for spas is set at a maximum of 20% of revenues, with an effective rate currently at 10%.

Lecturers from Thammasat University’s “Policy Watch” group back a proposed property-tax structure and urged the government to show its sincerity by enacting the new law to enhance efficiency in land use and increase in the incomes of local administrative organisations. (The Nation)