TOT cuts damages claim against AIS to Bt62 bn

A TOT source said yesterday that the state agency had reduced the claim after reviewing the initial figure of Bt72 billion.

Its management yesterday presented the submission of the new claim for acknowledgement by the board, the source added.

In September, TOT gave AIS, which is now its former concession holder, written legal notice of its claim of Bt72 billion for damages arising from the sixth and seventh amendments to the concession |contract.

The figure was based on TOT’s calculation of damages from 2001 to June 2015.

The notice indicated that TOT was basing its claim on the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling finding former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra – the founder of AIS – guilty of abuse of power.

After receiving the notice, AIS brought the case before the the arbitration panel.

In its reply to TOT, the company said it had always respected the concession contract and had never abused it.

According to the concession contract, any dispute should be brought before an arbitration panel.

TOT granted AIS a 25-year concession to use the 900-megahertz spectrum in 1990.

The sixth amendment took place in May 2001 during Thaksin’s administration, when TOT lowered the concession fee for AIS’s prepaid service from 20-25 per cent to a flat 20 per cent until the end of the concession period.

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 AIS’s concession fee.

These two instances were cited by the Supreme Court in its 2010 ruling finding Thaksin guilty of abuse of power.

In a separate matter, the TOT board yesterday considered the draft memorandum of understanding that AIS and the state agency will sign to create a 10-year partnership deal for 3G-2.1GHz business.