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Published on April 1, 2008

This was announced a day after his return to the country from his UK trip, the same day that the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) decided to file charges against him for abuse of power.

Obviously, this is Thaksin's gesture to end all the criticism and conflicts that led to the prosecution of his family members and fanned the hatred of people opposed to him.

To date, despite the formation of a government which is accused of being his nominee, these conflicts are only growing and adding to the worries of the nation's business leaders that political instability will return again to bring the Thai economy to its knees - just like last year.

Back in 2006, the Shinawatra and Damapong families netted Bt73 billion from the sale of a combined 49-per-cent stake in Shin Corp.

At that time, many people said the sellers should have paid income tax of 37 per cent on the deal. Based on the Bt73-billion sum, that would have been Bt27 billion.

It was said earlier that the tax case against Bhanapot Damapong, the brother of Thaksin's wife Pojaman, had reached the statutory limit, meaning that Bhanapot would not need to pay anything from the profits. However, according to Thaksin, Bhanapot is also ready to pay taxes.

It's unclear whether all the charges brought against Thaksin and his family members would be dropped accordingly.

Yesterday, the AEC filed charges against Thaksin for abusing his power by having the Export-Import Bank of Thailand extend additional loans to Burma so that the country could use the money to buy equipment from Shin Satellite - a subsidiary of Shin Corp.

Thaksin also faces charges of abuse of power, as his wife emerged as the buyer of land owned by the Financial Institutions Development Fund. Meanwhile, there is also an allegation that he concealed his holding in SC Asset.

Hopefully, all the charges will now be dropped. This should boost the sentiment over the future of two wrangling coalition parties. Moreover, the Democrat Party will have no reason to counter the move of Thaksin's "nominee party" in amending the Constitution.

Eventually, this would lead to peace, something that would lift investment and spending sentiment and put Thailand back on a path to prosperity.

Alas, you'd be insane to believe any of what was just said here, particularly on April Fool's Day.

Achara Deboonme

achara_d@nationgroup.com

The Nation