TOT union protests loss of revenue

TOT's labour union is seeking 10,000 employee signatures on a petition protesting a law that will require the state telecom enterprise to return all concession revenue to the government.

Section 84 of the Frequency Allocation Act stipulates TOT and CAT Telecom must return revenue from their concessions and frequency-related services to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), starting on Dec 20, 2013.

The NBTC will then pass the revenue to the state.

The union's petition will be submitted to the Constitutional Court and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Pongthiti Pongsilamanee, the labour union's acting president, said the relevant section of Section 84 contravenes Section 305 of the constitution, which protects state enterprise contracts and concessions from subsequent legislation.

"It will cause a huge amount of damage to TOT and CAT, both of which rely heavily on concession revenue," he said.

TOT reported revenue of 19 billion baht from concessionaire Advanced Info Service last year. Its net profit was 6 billion baht.

"Without concession revenue, TOT will immediately suffer a heavy loss of more than 10 billion baht a year," said Mr Pongthiti.

"TOT could meet with a tragic end. There are no guarantees it can survive."

He said the union has gathered 2,000 employee signatures so far and expects to reach its target of 12,000 names by next month.

TOT employees fully realise mobile concessions are assets that belong to the state telecom enterprise, said Mr Pongthiti.