The Information and Communications Technology Ministry has ordered the stateprivate joint committee to reexamine Thaicom's concession amendments and ascertain how the alleged breaches of contract occurred.
The panel has already given its opinion to the ministry on three cases in which the company's concession amendments allegedly breached the contract, and on how to rectify the breaches.
However, ICT Minister Chuti Krairiksh wants it to provide him with more details and also to examine further whether there are more than three cases of breaches, a ministry source said yesterday.
The panel will then have to advise him on how to rectify all of the breaches found.
Chuti also instructed the committee to reach a conclusion on how the ministry should deal with Thaicom's iPSTAR broadband satellite. This relates to the Supreme Court's ruling in February on the assetsseizure case involving ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, when it was stated that iPSTAR was a new satellite project and not in Thaicom's original concession.
He also instructed the panel to find out how iPSTAR project development had come to be approved by Thaksin's administration.
Thaicom executives have affirmed many times that what the company did complied with the relevant regulations and was undertaken with the consent of the state authorities.
The Finance Ministry recently said the government would make a final decision on whether to buy Thaicom's satellite business after the ICT Ministry finished examining the company's concession amendments.
According to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Thaksin case, members of his Cabinet had allowed Thaicom to change the terms of its concession contract to launch the iPSTAR satellite as its main satellite, rather than launch a backup satellite for Thaicom 3, as stipulated in the contract.
The concession contract of Shin Satellite - the previous name of Thaicom - amended in October 2004, reduced Shin Corp's minimum holding in Thaicom from 51 per cent to the present 41 per cent. This effectively reduced Shin's investment burden while passing risks to smaller shareholders.
Thaicom violated its concession when it used a US$6.7million (Bt216 million) insurance claim to pay for satelliterental charges instead of remitting the amount to the Transport Ministry, which was the satellite's concession owner at the time.
According to the final opinions of the stateprivate panel on these three cases, which have been sent to Chuti, the majority of its members gave opinions in line with the court ruling.
They viewed that iPSTAR was not a backup satellite for Thaicom 3 and that Thaicom still had to build a backup satellite. Shin should also raise its stake back to 51 per cent and Thaicom should return the $6.7million insurance claim to the ICT Ministry, which will give it back to the company.