Certainly, when the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry announced that Advanced Info Service (AIS) had breached the Public/Private Joint Venture Act but the violation would not lead to the nullification of its telecom concession, its decision applied only to the telecom sector.

However, it has been reported that King Power International is seeking to use this announcement to alleviate the effect on its business from a similar decision.

It is known that King Power has been under huge pressure to have its concessions from Airports of Thailand (AOT) nullified following the Council of State's ruling that the two concessions awarded to it violated the Public/Private Joint Venture Act.

The Council of State then resolved that King Power's concessions must be nullified, and AOT's board of directors acted accordingly by deciding to scrap the concessions (though no action has been taken as yet).

It is surprising that while AIS is being spared, King Power is being sent to the death row for the very same transgression.

An academic approached by The Nation offered an interesting comment.

He said King Power and AIS were in different situations, so it was unreasonable for the duty-free retailer to exploit this strategy.

"AIS provides services to nearly 20 million mobile-phone users, while King Power operates duty-free shops and manages the commercial area at Suvarnabhumi Airport. If the AIS concession is nullified, think about the effect on mobile-phone users. On the the other hand, nobody will die if King Power's concessions are nullified. People are not dying from being deprived of shopping at King Power outlets," the academic said.

Do you agree with this view?

achara_d@nationgroup.com