The Cabinet in February annulled excise tax on telecom services, resulting in a shortfall of about Bt10 billion in tax revenues. However, the Finance Ministry then demanded the two state enterprises send their income from telecom concessions to the ministry each quarter. They are obliged to made payments twice a year.

So far, the two state enterprises have not yet sent their profits to the Finance Ministry, said the source.

He went further to say Finance Ministry permanent secretary Suparut Kawatkul would meet this month with the executives of two state enterprises regarding their contributions. The Finance Ministry wants them to share up to Bt8 billion in telecom-concession revenues.

The ministry has also demanded the two state enterprises send it additional income stemming from their annual net profits of Bt4 billion to Bt5 billion.

The order comes at a time when both state enterprises are suffering from declining revenues, due to deregulation in the telecom industry.

TOT has not yet reported its results for last year amid rumours it would hold back the figures for as long as possible, since they might be much lower than in 2005.

CAT posted total revenues of Bt31.193 billion last year for a net profit of Bt4.616 billion. Of total revenues, 32 per cent came from international calls, 24 per cent from data communications, 7 per cent from cellular services, 34 per cent from concession revenues and the rest from other businesses.

Due to the economic slow-down, the ministry has projected that government revenues may miss its Bt1.42-trillion target this year by Bt40 billion. Government revenues come from taxes, contributions from state enterprises and other income.

Wichit Chaitrong

The Nation