BEM Aims ฿5.23bln. From EXAT’s Default, Concession in Exchange is Possible!
It is not 1.8 billion baht that EXAT has to pay, but 5.23 billion baht in total after applying an interest since 1999.
26 ก.ย. 2561

According to the ruling of the Supreme Court on September 21, 2018, ordered Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT) to pay a compensation to Northern Expressway Company Limited (NECL), a subsidiary of Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limited (BEM) for a total of 1.8 billion baht, there is a huge amount of interest hidden behind all this.
 
The contract that was issued by the ministry stated that an interest of 4% will be applied to the party that defaults on the payment, and the interest will increase to 6% if the party misses the 30 days deadline for paying its debt.
The case happened back in 1999 and 2000 and the amount of compensation to be paid to BEM is 1,790,000,000 baht, however, when the 6% interest has been applied, the total reaches 5,232,707,140 baht!!
 
The controversial that led to the court’s decision was in the regard of the construction and operation of EXAT’s Don Muang tollway’s National Memorial-Rangsit that NECL claimed to be a conflict of interest with its Pakkret-Bang Pa-in expressway that the minister had appointed a private company to operate, while the terms and conditions state that the Pakkret-Bang Pa-in expressway was a non-competitive operation, thus requests EXAT to compensate the loss in revenue from the reduction of users as NECL had evaluated.
 
There are rumors going around that EXAT might seek an alternative way to pay its debt to BEM. Giving BEM a concession would be one of its way out.  