Bus contractor hit with massive daily fine

Bus contractor hit with massive daily fine

The city bus agency will hit Bestlin Group with a daily fine of 7.8 million baht until it meets its contractual obligations. (Photo by the Transport Ministry)
The city bus agency will hit Bestlin Group with a daily fine of 7.8 million baht until it meets its contractual obligations. (Photo by the Transport Ministry)

The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) has begun to fine Bestlin Group 7.8 million baht a day for failing to deliver new buses on Thursday as contracted.

Bestlin must also pay almost 800 million baht to have the Customs Department release the new buses already landed in Thailand so they can be handed over to the BMTA.

BMTA director Surachai Eamvachirasakul said on Thursday the company has been told that the fine will start on Friday after it failed to hand over 489 new natural gas-fuelled buses worth 3.39 billion baht on Thursday. The amount includes a lost opportunity fine worth 16,000 baht per bus per day, he said.

When the daily fine had consumed all of the 330-million-baht project guarantee paid by the company to the BMTA, the bus agency will terminate the contract, he said.

The state enterprise will also demand that the company reveal its plans in respect of its obligations under the bus supply contract, he said.

Mr Surachai said the contract stipulated that the company import the buses from Malaysia. If imported from China, the BMTA could not accept them.

Customs Department spokesman Chaiyuth Khamkhoon said on Thursday that 391 buses had already been delivered to Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri, and that customs officials found they had been wholly made in China.

Super Zara Co, which handled the bus imports on behalf of Bestlin Group, declared 100 of the buses as being imported from Malaysia in order to seek an Asean tariff waiver. To clear the 100 falsely declared buses, the importer must pay tax and a fine of 3.7 million baht per bus, or a total of 370 million baht.

The importer agreed to place a guarantee to get the 100 buses released from the port, Mr Chaiyuth said.

The other 291 buses, not yet declared, would be subject to 422 million baht worth of normal import and value-added tax. The other 98 buses remained in Malaysia, he said.

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