New Energy Business Act
relieved pressure for deprivatisation
By Jon Fernquest |
Looks like PTT has escaped largely unscathed.
In a two hour media event, the reading of today's verdict in the PTT deprivatisation case resembled the earlier reading of the TRT disbanding case.
The Supreme Administrative Court found PTT's pipelines and pipeline land to be national assets that must be returned to the Ministry of Finance before a regulatory agency is established:
Analysts said the loss of PTT's pipelines, worth about 10 billion baht ($300 million), would dent PTT earnings as the business accounted for 10-15 percent of the group's profits.(Source: Reuters)
Earlier this week, the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) voted a new Energy Business Act into law.
The law establishes a new independent regulatory agency to oversee the country's oil, natural gas and electricity sectors.
The regulatory agency will have a seven-member board and will have licensing authority for private operators.
This new law reportedly eliminates one major point of contention between activists and PTT:
One point raised by activists fighting the privatisation was that public, expropriated land used for PTT's gas networks should not have been transferred to a public company.
A new energy conservation promotion law is expected by June 2008.
Read more articles on the oil and energy sector.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Business, 12-12-07, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
largely - mostly
unscathed - without injury
verdict - decision of a court on a legal case
deprivatisation - making a company government owned again after it has been made privately owned (privatised)
independent - not influenced from the outside (by companies that give them money, for example)
a regulatory agency - part of the government which makes laws to control activity in part of the economy
licensing authority - has the power to give permission to companies to do business
a point of contention - an issue argued about
activists - a person who works to bring about social and political change through public campaigns
privatisation - changing a government owned company into a privately owned company
expropriated land - take land away from someone
x transferred to y - x taken from someone and given to y
a public company - a corporation with stockholders officially registered with the government
energy conservation - the practice of finding new ways to reduce energy usage
