THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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BTS management takes its debt dispute with BMA to YouTube

BTS management takes its debt dispute with BMA to YouTube

Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTSC) has posted a video on YouTube, asking the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to repay the costs it had incurred running the Green Line extension.

 

The BTSC has repeatedly demanded from the BMA repayment of the Bt30-billion debt it had incurred from operating the Green Line extension and related expenses since 2018. The payment was due on March 31.

 

BTSC is a subsidiary of the SET-listed BTS Group Holdings Plc, and owns the Silom Line from National Stadium to the Taksin Bridge station, and the Sukhumvit route from Mor Chit to On Nut. The extensions of those two lines are owned by the BMA, which had hired BTSC to operate the service.

 

Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang in February had said that the city administration did not have money to repay the debt.

 

The video released on Friday had voiceover by BTS director Surapong Laoha-Unya.

 

In the video, the Skytrain operator mentions the Bt30-billion debt, which includes over Bt9.6 billion in wages for operating the Green Line extension since 2018 and purchase of a train operating system worth over Bt20 billion.

 

“The company has tried its best to show responsibility, as well as offer a solution for the problem. But it seems there are problems within problems, which the BTSC cannot tackle,” the director said in the video.

 

Surapong also told the public that, “there are people who do not want this issue to be resolved so they create reasons to obstruct it, without caring about its effect on the future, especially on the general people.”

 

In late January, the BTSC had threatened to suspend the train services unless the BMA paid its debt for operating the Green Line extension since 2018.

 

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