Earlier this week, General Rolex -- also known as Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon -- came out to say that the government had agreed in principle to give the winners of the 24 digital television and the 4G telecommunication licences a break from what is being perceived as being a loss-making venture.
General Rolex said that the military government would invoke Section 44 to ease the chronic financial burden for the 24 terrestrial digital television stations that were granted in 2014 and the two winners of the 900 MHz mobile licenses which were granted in 2015.
All this would be done at the expense of the state -- or, rather, at the expense of you and I as taxpayers.
Umesh Pandey is Editor, Bangkok Post.
"[The government] already agreed that, in principle, Section 44 is the sole way to resolve the financial crisis the TV and mobile operators are facing," Gen Prawit said.
General Rolex added that the operators' financial relief measures will soon be on the agenda for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), although he declined to mention any specific timing for this measure.
He only added that all this depended on the recommendations made by Deputy Prime Minister Wissuna Krea-ngam, who would submit the measure at the NCPO meeting.
This was the clearest signal given so far on the fate of these two issues that have been criticised by many bodies for using state coffers to rescue private companies.
Earlier, coup leader and incumbent Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said there were measures being discussed but he did not go as far as to say that S44 would be issued to clear up the financial problems of these companies.
The digital television operators have been seeking help after most of these buyers went above and beyond their means to bid for the new licenses.
Most had anticipated that the advertising industry would pick up pace and they would be able to make their money.
As it turned out, the industry remained stagnant and these firms have been burning money.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) granted 24 digital TV licences to 17 winning bidders in 2014, worth a combined 50.9 billion baht.
The winners had to pay licence fees over six years. To date, the digital TV operators have paid a combined 34 billion baht to the NBTC, or 64% of the amount owed.
In December, the NBTC officially endorsed a three-year suspension of terrestrial digital TV operators' licence payments by requesting the NCPO invoke Section 44, allowing operators to postpone their payments, starting from May 2018.
The regulator also offered to use its Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund to subsidise 50% of the rental fees for broadcasting networks to help digital TV operators pay a combined 2.5 billion baht per year.
If this was not enough of a leak in the state coffers, then the NCPO has more in the offing and this time around it is for the 900-MHz telephone license spectrum that the two companies -- Advanced Info Services Plc (AIS) and True Move -- won in 2016.
The government is looking to invoke S44 to help these business operators who have been milking money from the consumers while at the same time crying foul that they have so much burden to pay to the state.
If one goes to any of the 3 mobile operators -- AIS, True or Dtac, you will see that their mobile phone packages are very similar to each other and the prices are exorbitant.
In a world where the price of mobile data is on the decline, these same companies seeking taxpayers' money to bail them out are actually raising the price of data.
All this shows is that these mobile operators are working in an oligopolistic manner and are fixing the prices in order to maximise their own benefit and are taking the consumers for a ride.
With no real competition in the market, and the consumers being taken advantage of, why does General Rolex and his men in uniforms think that the Thai public should fork out money to save these companies?
The NCPO and the junta should therefore consider all things before they take the step of giving a runaway ticket to businesses that have made unsound decisions or are undertaking business practices that do not help the very public whose money they want to use to rescues their own ventures.