The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) says it stands ready to work with security authorities to stop supplying power from Thailand to border towns in Myanmar in order to cripple the operations of scammers in the neighbouring country.
Any move to suspend electricity supplies to Myanmar still requires close collaboration between Thai and Myanmar security agencies, PEA deputy governor Prasit Junprasit said on Friday.
He also guaranteed that Thai users living along the border and relying on the PEA service would not be affected by any such move.
Mr Prasit made the comments after the House Committee on State Security, Border Affairs, National Strategy and Reform on Thursday sought explanations from the Ministry of Interior about why it has not moved to cut electricity supplies to scam centres operating across the border in Myanmar.
The PEA is a state enterprise under the ministry.
In a statement on Friday, the agency clarified that it could not act alone on the issue, although Myanmar is a client buying its service.
It stopped feeding power to two villages in Myawaddy district in Kayin state opposite Tak province in 2023 at the request of the Myanmar embassy in Thailand, which came via the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The agency also cancelled a contract with another border village in Shan state last year after the Myanmar partner failed to pay for the power.
The PEA now supplies electricity to five locations in Myanmar: two of them in Myawaddy from Tak province and two more to Tachilek town from Chiang Rai province. Another line runs from Kanchanaburi province to a Myanmar border village in Mon state.