Bangkok--22 Jun--PR FOCUS
TRUEMOVE ASKS NTC TO INITIATE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DTAC’S NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE CONSTITUTION WHICH FORBIDS FOREIGN GOVERNMENT FROM COMPETING WITH PRIVATE THAI OPERATORS, OR REVOKE ITS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS LICENSE
True Move Company Limited has submitted a letter with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) who is acting in place of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to prevent Total Access Public Company Limited (DTAC) from competing with a private Thai operator or revoke its telecommunications business license since Telenor of Norway, a major shareholder in DTAC, has the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry holding 53.97% shares in Telenor Norway. This is a violation of the Constitution section 84 (1) which forbids the state to compete with the private sector.
True Move Company Limited has appointed Ms. Suphasorn Honchaiya as its representative to submit a letter to the NTC which is acting in place of the NBTC. The letter states that the Constitution B.E. 2550 Section 84 (1) forbids the state to operate a business in competition with the private sector. This also means that the Constitution forbids foreign state enterprises, regardless of the country, to operate a business which will compete against private Thai companies except only cases where the benefits are for the security of the Thai Government, for the overall public, or for the infrastructure. Therefore, according to the Constitution B.E. 2550 it is clear that even the Thai government is forbidden to compete with Thai private companies.
Ms. Suphasorn Honchaiya, True Move Company Limited’s representative said that apart from DTAC having foreign shareholdings in excess of 49%, evidence on Telenor Norway’s website states that Telenor Norway, a major shareholder of DTAC, has the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry is a major shareholder holding 53.97% For more details, visit: http://www.telenor.com/investor-relations/major-shareholdings. This proves that Telenor Norway is a foreign state enterprise. Moreover, additional evidence indicates that Telenor Norway has business interests in DTAC amounting to 65.5% which appears in Telenor Norway’s Annual Report on Page 5 under the heading Asia DTAC — Thailand (http://www.telenor.com/en/investor-relations). From these facts, the status of DTAC is a foreign entity as well as a Norwegian state enterprise, and lacks the qualifications to receive a Thai telecommunications business license.
DTAC, as a telecommunications operator with a foreign state enterprise as a shareholder, has many advantages resulting in unfair competition in the Thai telecommunications industry. The Constitution section 84 (1) forbids the state to compete with the private sector, which can also be interpreted to include foreign states as well as foreign state enterprises. This particular situation is not covered by the three exceptional cases mentioned previously. From all these facts, the NTC who are acting place of the NBTC have been requested to forbid DTAC from competing against a Thai private operator, or to revoke DTAC’s telecommunications business license in order to comply with Section 84 (1) of the Constitution.
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