'Discrepancies' behind TOT about-turn

The withdrawal coincidentally came after the change from the Democrat-led government to the present Pheu Thai-led administration, which took office in August.
On August 22, TOT informed AIS that there were some discrepancies regarding its compensation demand and the agency was not proceeding with the matter. TOT then terminated the demand, which it had made on January 31. It added that the sixth and seventh amendments to AIS’s concession were still considered effective.
But TOT did not clarify what the “discrepancies” were. Its August 22 letter to AIS was signed by TOT executive vice president Pituk Kamarat, who had already resigned from the agency.
In response to TOT’s withdrawal of its demand, AIS informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Monday that it was withdrawing its dispute with TOT from the arbitration panel to which the cellular company had submitted the case in February. The panel accepted the AIS withdrawal of the dispute last Thursday.
In May, TOT lost another dispute regarding its demand for more than Bt31 billion in compensation from AIS for deducting part of its concession fee to pay excise tax between January 28, 2003, and February 26, 2007. The arbitration panel dismissed the case.
AIS brought both of TOT’s compensation demands to the arbitration panel in February. TOT president Anont Tubtiang said the agency would appeal against the arbitration panel’s dismissal of the excise-tax case.
AIS share price closed at Bt124 yesterday, up 0.81 per cent from Monday.