Krungthep Thanakom Co (KT) -- the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) business arm -- looks set to appeal a court ruling ordering both parties to jointly pay close to 12 billion baht in overdue debts incurred through the operation and maintenance of Green Line extensions.
The Central Administrative Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc (BTSC), the operator of the Green Line, also known as BTS Sky Train, which demanded the payment of overdue debts totalling 11.75 billion baht, including interest.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said the BMA still has the right to appeal the ruling within 30 days, saying its legal advisers and executives will first have to deliberate as to what course of action will be best to take.
A board meeting will be held today to discuss the ruling and explore ways to respond to the order, said Prasang Mongkonsiri, managing director of KT. Recommendations from the meeting, to be chaired by Tongthong Chandransu, will be forwarded to Mr Chadchart for a decision, said Mr Prasang.
The payment now required under the court ruling needs to be made within 180 days after the case is finalised.
It consists of two parts, an amount for the operation and maintenance of the first extension and the other for the same costs for the second extension.
The first extension comprises On Nut-Bearing and Saphan Taksin-Bang Wa extensions, while the second extension comprises Bearing-Samut Prakan and Mo Chit-Saphan Mai-Khu Khot extensions.
The first part of the debt, plus interest, that KT is ordered to pay the BTSC concerns the costs of service operation and maintenance of On Nut-Bearing and Saphan Taksin-Bang Wa extensions from May 2019 until May 2021, which is 2.34 billion baht in total.
The second part of the debt concerns the costs of operation and maintenance of Bearing-Samut Prakan and Mo Chit-Saphan Mai-Khu Khot extensions from April 2017 until May 2021, which is 9.40 billion baht in total.
A proposal has been submitted to the cabinet concerning swapping the first part of the debt with a new extension of the Green Line concession, which the cabinet has yet to decide on, said Mr Chadchart.
As for the second part of the debt, the BMA has assigned KT to have it dealt with, he said.
Under a contract signed on May 3, 2012, between the BTSC and KT and BMA, both KT and BMA were required to pay the debts.
Later, on Dec 12, 2019, the BTSC formally requested the repayment of the outstanding debts, according to the ruling.
Because KT and BMA had not responded to the written request for the debt payment, the BTSC was left with no choice but to bring the matter to the court.
The company petitioned the court on July 15 last year to force KT and BMA to jointly pay their debts.
The 11.75 billion baht, calculated as of the day the petition was submitted, however, was only a portion of the entire amount of debts KT and BMA have failed to repay to the BTSC since May 2019 for the Green Line's extensions.
The total amounts now to around 40 billion baht.
