Published on November 08, 2005
Democrats have voiced their concern about Egat’s IPO for a long time, not just recently
Re: “Democrats have had plenty of time to challenge Egat IPO”, Letters, November 5.
Allow me to respond point by point to Burin Kantabutra’s letter. 1. You are right; we have been voicing our objections to the proposed Egat privatisation all along. We have consistently made the point in Parliament as well as in various interviews over the past year. The rationale for submitting our objections to the SEC and SET last week was that all along, we were promised by the government they would set up a truly independent regulatory body to oversee Egat and the electricity industry prior to the IPO. The road shows have begun, but clearly no such regulatory body exists today. Moreover, rightly or wrongly, we feel that as long as it’s not yet a done deal, we have a duty to make ourselves and our rationale heard. 2. Our specific concerns are listed in the letters submitted to the SEC and SET last Thursday. They include the above point regarding a lack of independent regulators as well as the fact the Egat structure is not conducive to more transparent competition in the electricity-generation industry. The inclusion of the national grid – itself a natural monopoly – provides Egat with potential competitive advantages as the sole buyer of electricity from its competitors. This, together with a lack of independent regulators, will raise the risk profile of the electricity-generating industry and potentially deter private-sector investors. As for your points regarding the IPO process, we agree the domestic process is a good one. However, we are dismayed that there is no attempt to block the loophole that still allows Thais with private bank accounts abroad to hide behind the names of their banks, to subscribe to potentially large blocks of shares through the international portion. We submitted our recommendations as to how to close this loophole to the SEC last week. 3. We did not threaten to reverse the IPO. We stated it should be the job of any government to rectify any structure of a company that is of strategic importance, such as Egat, in the event the structure were against the public interest – of course by using available legal means. So, we will see how this plays out, and if the public interest is not best served by the current structure, as we suspect it will not be, then it will be our duty to rectify the situation. I think you appreciate this point. It is not likely this would lead to a full listing reversal. As for how we would favour this IPO, at a minimum it should be done only once laws supporting an independent regulatory body are in place. There is a complete draft of this, by the way, that was prepared by the previous Democrat government but ignored over the past four and a half years by the current administration. We also feel the national grid should remain in public hands – and that the listed entity should be either the combined power-generating capacity of Egat or a group of companies created to hold the existing plants, potentially to generate greater competition. I hope this clarifies our position. Thank you for your interest and keen attention. Korn Chatikavanij Deputy secretary-general, Democrat Party Bangkok ----------------------------- Court once again shows it has a lack of credibility Re: “Search for head auditor may go back to square one”, News, November 5. The State Audit Commission (SAC) gave the Constitution Court an easy way out in the Jaruvan Maintaka case. The commission was unaware it could not just submit questions for a ruling by the court. It was like asking it idle questions for legal advice known as a “declaratory judgement”. The commission may have standing, but it needs to have a substantive dispute between agencies. At least, it did not allege such a dispute, even though its petition highlighted the weakness in the court’s prior ruling. If there is a court of futility with credibility problems from the day it acquitted PM Thaksin in the assets-concealment case while ignoring its own precedent, our “Con[stitution] Court” fits the bill. Even though the court rejected the petition, the secretary-general of the court read a statement signed by 13 judges confirming that the SAC’s decision to elect a replacement last year was correct. The statement also said royal dismissal of Jaruvan was not necessary. Apparently, this Con[stitution] Court tried to make a back-door decision. The statement cannot have any enforceable legal validity. A court cannot render a judgement for a case it has rejected for deliberation. The court itself has engaged in an unconstitutional practice. Netirat Intira Bangkok ----------------------------- Don’t always assume that police aid and abet scams Last week, I was involved in a truck-motorbike accident on Koh Samui. The kid was going too fast to miss me, but thanks to Buddha, personal injury was a few scratches, the police arrived quickly and so did AIG Insurance. I’ve lived on Samui a long time, so I watched and listened very closely to the unfolding drama. The mother showed up with dollar signs in her eyes and with a couple of taxicab-driver types who spoke enough English to threaten me with “jail, prison and even worse at the police station”. A tourist would have been sorely intimidated and likely have forked over the demanded big-baht bite. Clearly, the police officers were unaware of what was being said. They were totally neutral and absolutely professional in the conduct of their duty. And this was equally true at Na Thon station later, when I paid a small fine, was handed back my passport and was free to go, with no undue pressure whatsoever. From the police perspective, everything was above-board and proper. Their conduct was above reproach and confirmed the greatly increased professionalism that expats living on this island have seen develop over for the past several years and for which both the island police and immigration deserve very high marks and compliments. After walking free, I voluntarily made a small merit payment, and this was noted in the police log. From my point of view, everything was exactly right. But because of the taxi-driver intimidation, I am convinced that the average tourist would not only have paid the bite, but also would have incorrectly believed the police were involved. Don Childs Surat Thani ----------------------------- Tsunami failed to wash away greed in Khao Lak I think Khao Lak hotels forget that the hotel industry is known as the hospitality industry. Hotel management in Khao Lak’s smaller hotels should be making a real effort to rebuild a customer base for the future by pleasing their customers. Hotels should value their guests and make a fuss over them by trying to please them in any way possible, potentially to extend their stay and hope that they return and tell their friends about Khao Lak. Most people are returning to Khao Lak to assist the locals and help rebuild the economy. Khao Lak, at this stage, is still rebuilding everywhere. The beach is still not clean, and it is generally a haphazard situation for tourists. Therefore, there is no high season. As of November 1, hotels raised their prices as they did before the tsunami, but this year most hotels are nearly empty. Hotels would have been wise to keep low-season prices right through the year, in an effort to rebuild the customer base and an acknowledgement that Khao Lak is presently not 100 per cent attractive. Hotels seem to expect tourists to pay high-season prices, even thought they are staying in a construction site. The staff in the hotels are fantastic. They offer the wonderful Thai smile and enthusiasm, which we all look for as tourists. But I feel management is a different story. Management in some hotels is taking an aggressive stance towards tourists. Even though empty, they will not discount for long stays (some up to three months). They charge for late check-out, again even though empty, which makes me think management needs training in hospitality skills to be flexible in certain situations. We have returned for up to four months to assist families, spending money in the village and helping wherever possible; eg, tiling, refurbishing houses and fitting rainwater tanks. It is very difficult to obtain a reasonable rate for potentially two to four months. Like for many others, determining a reasonable rate will determine the length of stay. The aggressive attitude of some hotel managers is starting to leave a bad taste in our mouths, as well as with many of our friends who are staying here, as well. We are wondering if we will return after this trip. It would be the friendships we have made with local Thais that do bring us back. Does the TAT offer training for hotel managers in customer relations? Stuart Darwin, Australia ----------------------------- Applying business loyalty to the world of politics If I were wealthy enough to finance a political party to win control of Parliament, I would also feel that democracy were just a means to an end. If I told the people I would give priority to provinces that supported my party, I would just be telling them the facts of life. I would just treat those provinces as my preferred customers. My model of democracy requires people to be loyal and obedient. Just look at my maids and drivers; they’re thrilled with this model. Veharachan Bangkok ----------------------------- A rose by any other name would cost the same Re: “Blooming expensive”, News photo, November 6. Now that the entire nation has been fed the teaser with the picture on the front page, please, please, please don’t drop this story! You simply have to tell us all who in this crazy world would spend a million baht on a flower with a half-life of a gnat instead of buying an Elite Card with its myriad of benefits. Or perhaps the buyer of the orchid already has one? Please identify him, so that every person in the Kingdom with a sick buffalo can seek his largesse. Grandpa in Chon Buri Chon Buri
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