Veteran consumer-rights activist Saree Aongsom-wang will today walk into the courtroom of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) expecting nothing less than a signal of victory.

Although the verdict on the listing of Egat Plc could be a month away, a committee of judges is expected conclude its review of the case. Its statement will serve as a guideline for the final ruling in April, Saree said.

The activist believes the statement will come out in favour of her group, which is fighting the sale of Egat, one of

the country's first and largest state enterprises.

Many anti-privatisation activists, including members of the People's Alliance for Democracy, plan to attend the hearing.

"I am confident justice will prevail," Saree said yesterday. "We are fighting

for the majority and we have a strong

case. Our academic support team has worked hard to show how consumers will lose out if we allow the privatisation to go-ahead."

Saree, chair of the Consumers Protection Foundation, and 10 other civic-rights activists last November filed their complaint with the SAC to revoke two executive decrees that would allow the corporatisation of the utility.

Five defendants were named in the lawsuit including Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and energy minister Viset Choopiban for abusing their power when they enacted the two decrees.

By agreeing to proceed with the case, the SAC last November put the brakes on the public sale of Egat shares, just a day before the initial public offering was scheduled. While consumer groups and the public hailed the injunction as a landmark decision that put consumer interests first, the move shocked the government and the financial community, which fears the case could affect the privatisation of other state enterprises.

Lawyer Nakhon Chomphuchat submitted a long list of irregularities in the listing of Egat on the stock market and anticipated the cost for consumers.

Saree said she was confident because the government had failed to clearly respond to many of the allegations.

"We claimed that the public hearing process was unlawful because the government appointed a chairman with links to the Thai Rak Thai Party. By law, the chairman has to be independent of any political party. The government had no answer to this point."

Nakhon observed that the SAC has made this case a priority and proceeded "very fast".

"The ruling should come by mid-April at the latest," Nakhon said. "It is clear that the court thinks this is a very important case for the country."

The petitioners questioned what the public would get from the sale of one of the country's strongest and most profitable public enterprises.

While politicians, stock traders and Egat's employees can profit from the utility's assets, consumers without the money for shares would watch the public utility transformed into the assets of a few, he said.

Since the Egat sale injunction in November, the group received close to 10,000 names on its online petition at www.stopft.com.

Another petitioner, Rossana Tositrakul, said she trusted the SAC, which would "stand up for the interests of the country". "The corporatisation of Egat will not promote competitiveness as many people were led to believe," Rossana said. "The nature of the enterprise comes with state power, for example, of land expropriation. There are no other private companies that have the same power."

Consumers will have to shoulder higher prices because electricity will be treated as a pure commodity instead of a basic public service, the group said.

It estimates power bills will rise at least 4 per cent in order for Egat to make the 8.3 per cent profits it promised potential shareholders.

The state too stands to lose out, the group said.

Egat now sends 35 per cent of its profits to state coffers but once sold off the rate of return would be reduced to 25 per cent depending on profits.

Public assets such as dams will be leased to Egat for minimal amounts, the group claims, citing the Pak Mool Dam, which cost Bt6.6 billion to build but will be leased to Egat for just Bt4 million a year.

Last October Egat employees were allocated 510 million shares at Bt10 each, less than half the planned IPO price of Bt25-Bt28. Growing concerns that the SAC ruling might put Egat's listing on hold forced its board last week to agree to buy the shares back from staff.

Nantiya Tangwisutijit

The Nation