An Alternative Take on the Thaksin Shinnawattra's Confiscation Ruling and Concessions for Mobile Phone Service Providers
(Translated Version) By: Chris Potranandana LL.B (Second Class Honor), Chulalongkorn University Thai Post Newspaper—Wednesday 3 March 2009 With regard to the recent judgment handed down by the Supreme Court on 26 February regarding mobile phone concessions, there are many interesting points worth examining and which deserve further academic scrutiny. With deepest respect to the court of law, this article was not written with the intention of addressing the correctness of the judgment or to take the side of any party, but to academically examine different aspects of the judgment in terms of state and economic policies that affect the interests of the Thai people on the whole. The judgment addressed a number of issues such as the conversion of concession fees into an excise tax through the enactment of an ordinance amending the Excise Tariff Act of 1984 and 2003, or the amending of the One-2-Call contract which diluted the share to revenue ratio set for mobile services using...