BMTA granted collateral from Bestlin

Bus supplier will ‘wait for final verdict’

The Supreme Administrative Court has overturned a primary court verdict in a case involving Bestlin group, cancelling jurisdiction granted to the bus supplier that would have protected it from paying 338-million-baht collateral to Bangkok Mass Transit Authority.

Bestlin had been fined the amount by BMTA following the firm’s failure to deliver NGV (natural gas for vehicle) buses on time.

The BMTA earlier accused Bestlin of violating their contract after it failed to meet the delivery deadline for 390 buses on Dec 29 last year.

The transit authority decided to scrap the contract for the supply of 489 buses and seize the collateral placed under the contract.

Bestlin took the case to court, arguing the BMTA’s confiscation of the collateral, which would allow its guarantor ICBC bank Thailand, to start calculating interest on its loan, would deliver a blow to the company’s financial security.

The Administrative Court ruled in favour of Bestlin, serving an injunction and temporarily suspending the BMTA’s right to claim the money from the bank until a verdict in another case deciding whether Bestlin had in fact violated the contract.

However, the Supreme Administrative Court has now overruled the verdict because it saw “no sufficient reason” to grant the injunction.

According to the judge, it is debatable whether the BMTA’s move to scrap the contract was illegitimate. But since the city bus operator made the decision, it should be given the right to claim the collateral, it said.

If it eventually turns out it is the BMTA that violated the contract, the court can order it to pay compensation to Bestlin.

The damages the firm may suffer are “not too difficult to deal with later”, the verdict said.

As a matter of fact, ICBC had already paid the collateral to the BMTA before the Administrative Court had ruled in favour of Bestlin.

Bestlin’s lawyer Worapoj Wanitchanont said the company respected the court’s decision.

However, yesterday’s ruling is only part of the legal battle between the BMTA and Bestlin.

The company said it would wait for a final verdict. If it is handed down in the firm’s favour, the BMTA needs to “return the collateral, pay compensation and take all the buses”, he said.

So far Bestlin has spent about one million baht a month on taking care of the buses, Mr Worapoj said. The longer the BMTA refuses to procure the buses, the more deterioration the vehicles will undergo, the lawyer warned.

Bestlin, which was awarded the contract in September last year, failed to meet the delivery deadline because it could not get the imported buses out of Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri.

The Customs Department accused Super Zara Co, the firm’s affiliate handling the import, of falsifying documents to make it appear as though the buses were made in and imported from Malaysia to receive a tax break under Asean’s free trade agreement.

The buses are believed to have been made in China.