More study of iTV issue
The PM's Office will consult the Attorney-General's Office on whether the free TV station iTV Plc needs to comply immediately with the Central Administrative Court's ruling delivered against it last week.
"The office is expected to give us an answer on the case within two weeks," permanent secretary Rongphol Charoenphanthu said yesterday. But he declined to specify when the Permanent Secretary's Office would request the interpretation of when iTV would have to resume paying the original concession fee.After a meeting of the panel overseeing iTV's concession and iTV management on the result of the lower court's verdict, Rongphol said any action might have to wait for a final judgement from the Supreme Administrative Court. After losing the court battle last week, iTV said it would appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court. The lower court's decision last week would mean iTV has to resume paying the original annual concession fee of around Bt1 billion to the Permanent Secretary's Office. The court ruling also means iTV would have to revert to its original news-entertainment ratio of 70:30. The verdict also called for the payment to the government of Bt1.7 billion, according to Rongphol's estimate, as the difference between the original concession fee and the lower fee awarded by an arbitration panel. Of that, Bt570 million was for 2004 and Bt670 million for last year, plus interest. iTV had earlier asked the Permanent Secretary's Office to compensate it for overcharging on the concession fee. The station said its business was suffering because some cable TV operators were apparently running disguised commercials in defiance of their contracts. However, the government refused to do anything. iTV took its complaint to the arbitration court and won the case in 2004 when it was allowed to pay Bt230 million a year as a concession fee and increase its news-entertainment programming to 50:50 starting on January 30, 2004. The Permanent-Secretary's Office then asked the Central Administrative Court to override the arbitration court's ruling, claiming the verdict exceeded that court's authority. Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, chairman of iTV's executive committee, said iTV has pointed out that Section 70 of the law governing the establishment of the Administrative Court says an administrative court verdict is held in abeyance pending an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court. He believed that iTV would manage to remain healthy, even if the lower court's verdict is upheld, thanks to the company's strong management. iTV is 53 per cent owned by Shin Corp Plc, whose major shareholder is Singapore's state investment arm, Temasek Holdings. Niwattumrong denied speculation that MCOT Plc will buy a stake in iTV and that Temasek will soon sell off its holding. - The Nation
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