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Published on March 13, 2008

TOT's acting executive vice president for legal affairs Suthep Srisuwan said yesterday that TOT's legal officers were gathering information on the number of instances in which it would have to pay the tax.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that TOT had to pay a household tax worth Bt45,600 for its 182 public phone booths to Nakhon Phanom municipality.

TOT has 50,000 public booths in Bangkok and 90,000 in the provinces, while its private telecom concessionaires True Corp and TT&T have 26,000 booths in Bangkok and 25,000 in the provinces, respectively.

Suthep said that earlier TOT's regional units dealt with such cases, but now the state agency will have its staff in the central unit provide support.

TT&T chief finance officer Prasitchai Kritsanayunyoung said TT&T had never experienced household taxes for its phone booths, but it is willing to pay if requested to do so.

If legally obliged to pay, TT&T will first talk with TOT, which would be responsible for the tax payment.

It is estimated that the cost of the household tax on each phone booth is about Bt50 monthly.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation