A failure to communicate

The public are about to receive a bill for tens of billions of baht for goods they didn’t order. It says right on the bill itself that people don’t even want most of the items. But unless there is a major change in business demands, agency recommendations and government attitude the bill will come due within weeks. The payment will save digital TV operators and mobile phone company executives who made terrible decisions, and now want the country to bail them out.

The worst part of this already bad deal is that there is to be no accountability. Officially, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha can still kill an agreement made by one of his deputy prime ministers and the lame-duck head of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said last week that it seems certain Gen Prayut will use his Section 44 powers to provide the needed money to save the companies, by delaying huge licence fees due soon. The digital TV operators, along with mobile phone giants AIS and True Move, say they must be allowed years of grace — or their operations will go broke. Provided the prime minister signs the necessary Section 44 orders, there will be no penalty for the men who put the country in this position, secretary-general Takorn Tantasith and his NBTC commissioners.

The NBTC is without doubt the source of the problems. The commission has held three significant bandwidth auctions, for 3G and 4G phone licences and for digital TV broadcasting permits. Each was a unique disaster. The 3G bandwidth auction was widely criticised for massive under-charging and subsequent underpayment to the state. The 4G auction was the reverse. The NBTC, in trying to correct the 3G low prices, forced bids so high that one of the “winning” companies had to relinquish its licence before even using it.

The two-day digital TV auction in December, 2013, was criticised as the worst of the three. The NBTC crowed that “the government earned more than 50 billion baht” for the 24 licences good for legally broadcasting variety, news and children’s content. The amount was to be paid in instalments, but operators up to now have paid less than two-thirds of the money they agreed to. Some have refused to pay more, and last week the Central Administrative Court ordered Mr Takorn and the NBTC to return 1.5 billion baht in bank guarantees to Thai TV president Pantipa “Jeh Tim” Sakulchai.

Of course Mr Takorn and commissioners will appeal the order but the court’s ruling has consequences. As a result, Mr Takorn has lobbied very hard for Section 44 to come to the commission’s rescue. In turn, other digital TV operators who simply misread the market and the public’s desire for internet streaming also are pushing for relief by taxpayers.

AIS and True Move say they need licence-fee relief of 120 billion baht. The mobile phone business is so bad, say these two companies, that they can’t pay their 2019 licence fees for 4G operations for at least five years. That indicates that in 2024 they probably will have another request for payment delay, if not forgiveness.

The government has avoided any public debate on this important and expensive issue. Businesses have not been forced to account for their horrendous error in over-bidding for digital-TV licences. Neither have the mobile phone companies. Indeed, it is puzzling how phone giants can so control access to internet streaming while still pleading for relief via Section 44.

If Gen Prayut does what is expected to bail out all these private businesses and their terrible decisions, he will owe a major explanation to the country. He also must state why he believes that businesses unable to pay their bills today will even be profitable enough to pay a few years down the road.

The government has avoided any public debate on this important and expensive issue.