No infringement of bidding law, says ministry
The Transportation Ministry defended the transfer of the management of three regional airports to the International airports of Thailand included in its budget-saving plan, insisting it is not a sale of state assets.
The ministry said the particular management transfer of Udon Thani, Krabi and Buri Ram memory airports from the Section of Airports (DoA) to the Airports associated with Thailand (AoT), a state enterprise, was regarded by the Council associated with State, the government’s legal arm.
It was section of a plan to revamp the airport network and streamline airspace management, under the commercial airport development masterplan.
The ministry also moved to dispel concern the transfer of the airports would violate legislation against fixed offers, saying no bids had been called and no price tender had been made to accommodate the management transfer.
Earlier, former transport minister Thaworn Senneam said the transfer may have damaged the law as most parties were permitted to compete for the right to run the international airports.
No state properties or even assets were to end up being handed over to a private company since the AoT remains a state enterprise despite parts of the shares being exchanged on the stock exchange.
In fact , the particular AoT needs to spend rent to use facilities and land towards the Treasury Department, based on the ministry.
The ministry also addressed claims the fact that DoA had invested a large amount of money in the airports only to discover them handed over towards the AoT. The ministry said none of the assets, buildings or land is possessed by the DoA, including they belong to the particular Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department merely given permission to the DoA to use the property.
When the AoT takes over the particular management of the international airports, it will have to indication a contract to lease the land plus rent the amenities from the Treasury Department.
The AoT must also take the terms of commercial development of the international airports, which require the particular agency to charge a reasonable amount in airport service costs and support local businesses.
After the AoT steps in to oversee the particular airport management, it can help reduce the state budget, which otherwise would have been disbursed by means of a subsidy to the DoA to run the particular airports.
In the first five years of a takeover, the AoT has got the obligation to make the essential airport investments to create them competitive.
The DoA, meanwhile, said the particular AoT’s role within managing the three airports will help the expansion of the airports’ general transport and logistical capacities, which hard disks economic growth.
The AoT has also pledged to deliver the DoA with funds to assist in developing the remaining regional airports under the department’s supervision.