Court postpones fee decision for iTV to next month
Chaiwat: If the committee’s decision is not conclusive, we might need to further study the laws that authorise the committee to settle disputes.
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The Central Administrative Court yesterday delayed delivering its verdict on iTV Plc's concession fee until May 9, fuelling doubts about the television channel operator's future if it has to shoulder the original concession requirements.
"As a lawyer for iTV, I'm deeply worried about the outcome. It is totally unpredictable what the outcome will be,"
said Chaiwat Maraphruekwan, the television station's legal counsel.
iTV's share price yesterday continued to slide, closing at Bt7.70 - a 15.4-per-cent drop from Monday's close of Bt9.10 - a sign of just how concerned investors are about the company's financial prospects.
The court originally planned to announce its verdict yesterday.
But iTV submitted further evidence and requested the court interrogate more individuals involved before reaching the verdict.
However Chief Judge Prasitsak Meelarp said yesterday that the court considered it unnecessary to interview more witnesses, given that the court had received sufficient information.
Chaiwat told reporters that iTV would like the court to consider that iTV had been trying for a long time, via negotiations with the PM's Office which awarded the concession, to get a reduction in the annual concession fee.
The issue was forwarded to an arbitration committee, which eventually ruled that the office should reduce the fee and it allowed the channel to adjust the proportion of news content from 70 per cent of the total down to 50 per cent.
"If the arbitration committee's decision is not conclusive, we might need to further study the scope of the power of such committees as well as the laws that authorise the committee to settle disputes," the lawyer said.
On January 30, 2001, the arbitration committee concluded that the PM's Office should reduce the concession fee to Bt230 million per annum. Under the concession, iTV was originally expected to pay Bt800 million a year in the first five years, a rate that was scheduled to climb 6.5 per cent in following years until it reached a maximum of Bt1.2 billion.
The arbitration committee also ruled that news content during prime time should be reduced from 70 per cent to 50 per cent.
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