Caretaker PM's Office Minister Newin Chidchob yesterday set up a five-member panel to look into the legal problems surrounding the iTV concession-fee case.

The panel, headed by Anti-Money Laundering Office chief Peeraphan Prempooti, will study the Central Administrative Court's ruling that a contract between

the Office of the Permanent Secretary (OPS) of the PM's Office Ministry and broadcaster iTV was illegal.

"When a deal is ruled illegal, we have to look into it to determine how it came about - how things proceeded and what happened," he said.

The Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) concluded earlier this month that the Central Administrative Court's May ruling on the concession-fee case had immediate effect.

iTV faces a potential bill of Bt76 billion in penalties and Bt1.7 billion in backdated fees for violating a number of the conditions of its broadcasting concession.

Newin said iTV would soon submit an explanation to the OPS detailing how it proposed to cope with the penalties.

A Central Administrative Court source said iTV was obliged by the ruling to pay the fine, or it faced a contempt of court charge, or, ultimately, imprisonment of executives and asset seizure, for not complying.

Referring to the hefty fine, the source said the court had not considered the amount of money as both iTV and the OPS had originally agreed to honour the agreement when it was arrived at.

iTV is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court.

"And if the ruling is upheld, iTV has no choice but to comply with it, or it could face imprisonment [for executives], or asset seizure," the source added. Both the parties, though, are free to reach a new agreement to pay a lower fine after the final ruling is made, said the source.