Past AIS concession amendments unlawful: TOT
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THE TOT BOARD this week acknowledged the conclusion of the public-private joint-venture panel that the six amendments made to Advanced Info Service's concession in the past were unlawful and that the state telecom agency should seek compensation of about
The board also instructed the agency’s management to finish calculating the damages TOT allegedly incurred from the amendments within seven days for presentation to the new minister of information and communications technology.
The ICT minister will present his opinions on this issue to the Cabinet for consideration together with the panel’s conclusion on the concession amendments. This panel was founded under the Article 43 of the 2013 Public-Private Joint Venture Act.
According to a preliminary estimate, the damages from the second through seventh amendments were Bt59 billion, of which Bt49 billion resulted from the sixth amendment and Bt9.6 billion from the seventh.
TOT granted a 25-year concession to AIS, which will expire next month. The state agency amended the concession several times.
The highlighted one is the sixth amendment in May 2001 during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration when TOT lowered the concession fee for AIS’s prepaid service from 25-35 per cent to a flat 20 per cent until the end of the concession.
Under the seventh amendment in 2002, TOT allowed AIS to deduct the roaming fees paid to its subsidiary Digital Phone Co from the calculation of the AIS concession fee.
Cited in Thaksin ruling
These two cases were cited by the Supreme Court in its 2010 ruling finding Thaksin guilty of abuse of power. AIS is the flagship of InTouch Holdings, formerly known as Shin Corp, which was founded by the Shinawatra family.
The conclusion of the Article 43 panel is in line with the conclusion of a similar panel founded under Article 22 of a similar, earlier law.
The attempt to clear up the AIS concession-amendment problem has dragged on for years. After the court ruling against Thaksin, the Article 22 panel was set up under the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration to rectify the concession amendments and seek compensation from AIS. But still nothing happened until the present ICT Ministry urged TOT to consider the Article 43 panel’s conclusion, as the AIS concession will expire next month.
Meanwhile, TOT is still seeking possible business partnerships with five companies, including AIS.
