The Council for National Security (CNS) has warned the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) that mobile phones of its key members were being tapped, an AEC source said yesterday.

The source, who asked not to be named, said an assistant to Army Chief General Saprang Kalayana-mitr, the CNS secretary-general, told AEC chairman Nam Yimyaem and Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka to beware of phone-tapping and turged all members to use home or office phones instead.

When a reporter called an AEC member yesterday, the member's assistant answered the call and told the reporter to call the office number as the mobile phone was tapped.

Meanwhile, AEC spokesman Sak Korsaengruang said the sale of 329.2 million shares by Ample Rich Investments to the children of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra might not be subject to withholding tax, as the deal was not made in Thailand.

 He said the AEC had learned that Thaksin's son Panthongtae, his sister Pinthongta and the secretary of Thaksin's wife, Kanjanapa Honghern, signed the authorising document with an Ample Rich executive, a friend of the deposed premier, to make the deal between Ample Rich and the two children on January 20, 2006.

However, the panel had not concluded the investigation on the issue, he said, and was still considering whether it was necessary to summon the Singaporean authorised to make the deal.

If Thaksin's children had to pay tax, the due date would have been on February 7 last year, he said.

Panthongtae and Pinthongta bought the shares from Ample Rich at Bt1 each while the share price at that time was Bt49, before selling the shares to Singapore's Temasek Holdings the very next day.

Thaksin's lawyer has claimed Panthongtae and Pinthongta were also shareholders and board members of Ample Rich.

A source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the AEC subcommittee agreed that Panthong-tae and Pinthongta Shinawatra should be taxed at the highest rate of 37 per cent on the profit gained.

This means they will have to pay about Bt5.8 billion in tax.

Another source said the AEC had asked the Revenue Department through Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula to suspend tax calculations for Panthongtae and Pinthongta until the AEC finishes the investigation, as the AEC and the department still had different opinions on the status of their income.

This could affect the court's decision on the case, the source said, adding the AEC would discuss the issue with Revenue Department director-general Sanit Rangnoi.

Sanit said yesterday he would meet the AEC if the committee wanted to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, AEC member Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka said that damaged government agencies had filed complaints against the alleged wrongdoers who held political positions in the cases of irregularities in the procurement of Suvarnabhumi Airport's CTX 9000 bomb scanners, and the airport's power supply project, as well as the purchase of a land plot by Thaksin's wife Khunying Pojaman.

As a result, the AEC should be able to appoint an investigation panel for the three cases by next Monday.

Sak said Pojaman and Thaksin's brother-in-law Bhanapot Dama-pong still had a few more days to acknowledge the allegations in the case of tax evasion from the share transaction.

However, they could send documents instead of coming in person.

The AEC summoned Pojaman, Bhanapot and six other people for tax evasion in the transaction of shares of Shinawatra Computer and Communication Co on January 4 and had to reply within 15 days.

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan,

 Bancha Khaengkhan

 The Nation