Minister Orders TOT to Open Up
By Bangkok Post, Thailand
Jan. 19–The Information and Communications Technology Ministry yesterday ordered TOT to allow access to its network by three million new mobile phone numbers allocated to DTAC and True Move. The state telecom agency had threatened to block the numbers unless the two mobile phone companies paid access charges.
ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom’s decision came after DTAC, which operates under a concession from CAT Telecom, paid 315 million baht in access charges for November on Wednesday. True Move has still not paid.
DTAC said it was set to pay an additional access charge of 196 million baht for postpaid customers by Jan 27. The company has already paid 1.95 billion baht for the charges incurred in the two months since it ceased payment on Nov 17.
Mr Sitthichai said he ordered TOT to drop its threat in order to comply with the law. Also, he was responding to CAT Telecom’s request for the ministry to tackle the network access dispute between TOT and the two companies.
DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke lauded the minister’s determination to solve the problem.
“This, once again, shows that the minister has taken the public interest seriously and has tried his very best to protect the consumers,” he said. “DTAC hopes that all existing unclear regulations will soon be amended and developed to set a clear, standardised direction for the whole industry. Once this happens, it will be a significant stepping stone for the industry to move to the next level.”
DTAC would still stand firm on its previous statement that it cannot shoulder both access charges and interconnection charges, he said.
On Wednesday, DTAC filed a petition with the Administrative Court seeking its intervention over the TOT’s threat to cut off its new numbers. The company claimed damages of 73 million baht plus 15 million baht per day for potential losses in business opportunities.
True Move, meanwhile, remained adamant that it would pay interconnection fees rather than access charges.
In addition, the ICT ministry yesterday asked the cabinet to void a resolution endorsed by the Thaksin cabinet to impose 2 percent excise tax on fixed-line operators, and a 10 percent tax on mobile phone services that could be deducted from revenue shared with either TOT and CAT Telecom.
It also proposed that the excise tax be cut altogether since fixed and mobile phone services are not a luxury item, but a necessary service. It was inappropriate to impose excise taxes on essential services.
The proposal was endorsed by the cabinet agenda scrutiny committee and would be forwarded to the cabinet for approval next Tuesday.
Mr Sitthichai said that he proposed to scrap the excise taxes because he feared operators might finally pass the tax burden to consumers.
The minister said that prior to the Thaksin government, there was no excise tax on these services. When it was later imposed, the revenues of both TOT and CAT were slashed as the money went to the Excise Department instead.
Although private operators did not have an extra tax burden, it was wrong that the Thaksin government regulated excise tax payments and deductions in a way that contravened the taxation principle.
By Srisamorn Phoosuphanusorn and Komsan Tortermvasana
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