Temasek's folly: Alarm over AIS 'bonus' of Bt80 bn - The Nation

Questions raised as to why TOT cut revenue repayment of Shin's cash-cow


Temasek Holdings of Singapore will suffer a further setback to its inroads here if the Assets Examination Committee takes on leading cellular firm Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) for allegedly benefiting from policy corruption by the state-owned TOT Plc that could cost Thailand more than Bt80 billion.

Korn Chatikavanij, deputy secretary-general of the Democrat Party, and Chienchuang Kalayanamit, executive director of Stern Stewart (Thailand) Co, have separately assessed the loss to TOT which it would sustain through to 2015 when the concession to AIS ends.

AIS is the money-spinner in the Shin Group, founded by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his family.

On Tuesday, Chienchuang submitted a statement to Kaewsan Atibodhi, secretary of the Assets Examination Committee (AEC), asking for a full investigation into the AIS concession, as revised under the Thaksin government. The appeal claimed that the relaxed payment terms would cost TOT more than Bt80 billion in lost revenue. (Read more...)