iTV staff want help from PM over Bt94 bn in fees
More than 30 iTV staff members will submit an appeal to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont today, asking the government to review an order for the station to pay concession fees of Bt94 billion, a source at the broadcaster said.
The source said the staff would submit the letter to the premier at Government House, to ask the PM's office to reconsider the fines. iTV must pay the fines following a Central Administrative Court ruling. However, the broadcaster wants the PM's Office to review the amount the free-to-air broadcaster has to pay. The TV station was only paying 6.5 per cent of revenue - or a minimum of Bt230 million a year - based on a 2004 arbitration panel judgement. But the Central Administrative Court on May 9 overturned that decision and ordered iTV to pay 44 per cent of revenue or Bt1 billion a year - whichever was greater. iTV lodged an appeal against the ruling with the Supreme Administrative Court. Previously, the government claimed the free-to-air broadcaster owed fines totalling Bt76 billion for breaches of its concession agreement. It claimed the station had adjusted programming ratios in 2004 without state consent and reduced concession fee payments from those specified in the contract. The concession contract meant total fines, plus interest, were now Bt94.06 billion, yet the source said staff at the channel feared the fines would have an adverse impact. "We are concerned the fines will affect iTV staff. If the station was seized [for its debts] we might be laid off. Why do we have to suffer for something we did not create," the source said. The source claimed there was no hidden agenda in the staff appeal to the prime minister - it was not aimed at pressuring the Supreme Administrative Court, which will conduct its first hearing on the appeal on Friday.
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