NONG KHAI : Customs officials have seized mock US dollar banknotes at a border checkpoint at the Thai-Lao bridge in Muang district.

The banknotes were believed to have been destined for Chinese merit-making ceremonies, known as kong tek in the Teochew dialect.

Officials yesterday were searching for illegal items on buses passing through the checkpoint when they stumbled upon a suspicious-looking box in a bus.

Inside they found 25 wads of what looked like $100 banknotes. Each wad was made up of 500 notes.

Officials initially thought the banknotes, with a face value of 425 million baht, were real $100 bills but then realised they were imitation greenbacks to be used as kong tek money.

Nobody has come forward to claim the notes.

Officials believed the notes were to be used for merit-making during the Chinese Festival of the Dead, which begins tomorrow.

The festival marks the occasion when the spirits of dead ancestors are believed to return to visit their descendants.

People of Chinese descent burn kong tek banknotes in the belief their ancestors can spend the money in the spirit world.

A source at the Customs Department said the banknotes were not seized because they were thought to be counterfeits. They were considered printed material and subject to import duties because they were brought in from Laos.