Policies of The Surayud Government - Telecommunications

Telecommunications

• The planned merger of state-telecom companies TOT and CAT.
• The cancellation of plans to list TOT, CAT, and Thai Post on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
• The cancellation of the Thaksin government's telecom excise tax policy. The Thaksin government imposed an excise tax on privately offered fixed and cellular services, and then allowed telecom companies to deduct the amount they paid in excise tax from concession fees they had to pay to state concession owners TOT or CAT Telecom. The total amount paid by the private telecom firms did not change. The Surayud government's excise tax cancellation meant that TOT and CAT Telecom would receive their full concession payments. However, TOT and CAT were then forced to increase their dividends to the Ministry of Finance to account for their increased income.
• Changing the publicly listed state-enterprise media company MCOT's policy from focusing on monetary benefits to social benefits. MCOT's stock prices dropped 5.13% to an 11-month low as a result.