Phuket hotelier takes government and local administration to court demanding 242 million baht compensation

[webfact]

Picture: Manager

 

Manager reported that a leading hotelier responsible for several hotels on the holiday island of Phuket has taken the government including premier Prayuth Chan-Ocha to court demanding 242 million baht for Covid-19 closures that have damaged business. 

 

Praphan Buntantraphiwat from Kamala Beach Inn and Kamphon Thurakij group is representing three hotels.

 

They are Kamala Beach Inn, Karon View Resort and Wown Inn Hotel. 

 

He filed a compensation claim with the Central Administrative Court in Bangkok over a closure order that came into force on April 4th 2020. 

 

He claims that throughout the closure period the hotels received no support or financial help from the government and they just had overheads to meet.

 

Reopening further expense to be made. 

 

The suit claims that promised funds could not be accessed. 

 

Named in the suit were the ministry of Public Health, the Prime Minister, the Phuket administration and its governor and the Interior Ministry. 

 

The suit particularly refers to a four month and 20 day lockdown period last year which has, they claim, resulted in continuing devastation of the tourism industry only recently reopened to foreign tourism at the beginning of this month.

 

Their lawyers have advised them to sue for compensation or 10 year low interest loans at 2%. 

 

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[worgeordie]

Good Luck with that, but think first of the people that are REALLY suffering .

regards worgeordie

[colinneil]

13 minutes ago, webfact said:

 has taken the government including premier Prayuth Chan-Ocha to court demanding 242 million baht for Covid-19 closures that have damaged business. 

Bit pointless taken Prayut and mob to court, can anybody even imagine any court here ruling against them.

[BE88]

 

The three months' salary of the PM and the like has already found those who claim them

 

 

 

[madmitch]

242 million baht? Does this guy think he's in America? These are not top end resorts, more like glorified guesthouses.

 

 

[ikke1959]

Stupid action. If you are in business you have ti know you can win and you can loose.  Now it is a difficult time yes and business people will loose, But he is not alone. All over the world it is the same and a government can't take over the losses of all business, they are not the owners. Besides the Governments also don't get all the profits too when they heave the best times.  

[ChipButty]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Bit pointless taken Prayut and mob to court, can anybody even imagine any court here ruling against them.

They wouldnt dare 

[RichardColeman]

Actually I think it's a good idea. If 5000 hotels followed suit the PM and his associates could be tied up in every court in the country for years.

 

That said, I fully expect a new declaration of government immunity 

[khunPer]

Hotels all over the World suffers from lack of business due to Covid, that's how it is! And that's part of the risk when operating a business for gaining profit; do the hotel owner mentioned here also send similar part of his profit to the government during good years?

[calbts2]

1 hour ago, ikke1959 said:

Stupid action. If you are in business you have ti know you can win and you can loose.  Now it is a difficult time yes and business people will loose, But he is not alone. All over the world it is the same and a government can't take over the losses of all business, they are not the owners. Besides the Governments also don't get all the profits too when they heave the best times.  

My god what an ignorant and thoughtless post. Is there such thing as "Pandemic Insurance to pay for forced government shutdowns of your business"?

I don't think so. Normally when you "lose" it is because of competitive market forces and/or poor business management - not by unexpected forced government shutdowns.

In my opinion, if a government is forcing you out of business though no fault of your own, then they should be fully responsible for compensating you for your losses.

I hope this guy and every business bankrupted from these forced closures sues the hell out of the government and wins.

 

And during the best of times - government gets to tax you on your profits so your last statement is complete hogwash.

[Bob12345]

29 minutes ago, calbts2 said:

I hope this guy and every business bankrupted from these forced closures sues the hell out of the government and wins.

You do realize that "the government" gets most of their money from "the people" right?

 

So you are basically hoping for a huge wealth distribution from "all thai citizens who didnt lose their business" to "all thai citizens who lost their business". Whoever still got their business or got a normal job will pay millions in taxes so people who lost their business will get millions from the government.

[PETERTHEEATER]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

Bit pointless taken Prayut and mob to court, can anybody even imagine any court here ruling against them.

Hey! The system works. He was already hit with a massive fine for not wearing a face mask..... ????

[ourmanflint]

This guy must be tone deaf as they say. This is unlikely to garner sympathy from anyone in Thailand

[IamNoone88]

We are all suffering and have received no help for our businesses. Not a single Sitang. 

[utalkin2me]

Seems obvious covid is with us long term. I think it is much more interesting to predict what we’ll see in the future. 
 

Hotels seem fairly self explanatory. Cleaner. More emphasis on sterilizing and or wrapping items used one customer to the next. 
 

Restaurants is the obvious one. They will rent small spaces with no dining areas. Kitchen in the back, with an area for grab drivers and walk ins in front to pick up. That’ll be common. 
 

Pattaya will go digital. They have the branding already in place. The dividers and fish bowl type dances will be more common. 
 

I think everyone is making the mistake of thinking when we are getting over this. We aren’t. Think about things will adapt in the next ten years. 

[ikke1959]

1 hour ago, calbts2 said:

My god what an ignorant and thoughtless post. Is there such thing as "Pandemic Insurance to pay for forced government shutdowns of your business"?

I don't think so. Normally when you "lose" it is because of competitive market forces and/or poor business management - not by unexpected forced government shutdowns.

In my opinion, if a government is forcing you out of business though no fault of your own, then they should be fully responsible for compensating you for your losses.

I hope this guy and every business bankrupted from these forced closures sues the hell out of the government and wins.

 

And during the best of times - government gets to tax you on your profits so your last statement is complete hogwash.

Ok than he can reduct this next year from his tax- office ... He will never pay tax as much as he asks now..

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Manager reported that a leading hotelier responsible for several hotels on the holiday island of Phuket has taken the government including premier Prayuth Chan-Ocha to court demanding 242 million baht for Covid-19 closures that have damaged business.

!st of many that might follow suit, can see these cases dragging on for years.

[Espanol]

3 hours ago, khunPer said:

do the hotel owner mentioned here also send similar part of his profit to the government during good years?

 

Yes. Name for that is "taxes".

 

[madmitch]

3 hours ago, calbts2 said:

My god what an ignorant and thoughtless post. Is there such thing as "Pandemic Insurance to pay for forced government shutdowns of your business"?

I don't think so. Normally when you "lose" it is because of competitive market forces and/or poor business management - not by unexpected forced government shutdowns.

In my opinion, if a government is forcing you out of business though no fault of your own, then they should be fully responsible for compensating you for your losses.

I hope this guy and every business bankrupted from these forced closures sues the hell out of the government and wins.

 

And during the best of times - government gets to tax you on your profits so your last statement is complete hogwash.

In the UK several policies were worded in such a way that the business interruption section did cover such losses. It went to court and the claimants were victorious. Hiscox were the biggest losers on this. I read their wording and said from day one that they were going to have to pay out.

 

Thai wordings seem to be less complicated and the only one I read (my own) would definitely not have provided any cover.

[MasterBaker]

Laugh of the day

[onthedarkside]

An off-topic, trolling post re China has been removed.

 

[kimamey]

4 hours ago, khunPer said:

Hotels all over the World suffers from lack of business due to Covid, that's how it is! And that's part of the risk when operating a business for gaining profit; do the hotel owner mentioned here also send similar part of his profit to the government during good years?

Well presumably they pay tax on profits. It's true that all businesses have ups and downs but this is unprecedented. A lot of governments have provided help for businesses badly affected by lockdowns including Thailand as far as I know and it seems to allude to this when it says that promised funds couldn't be accessed. I don't know whether this account is genuine so he may be just trying it on or he may have good point.

[natway09]

It will never get to court.

Under a state of emergency which Thailand is under they are lucky they did not

sequester their properties 

[Boedog]

[NeoDinosaw]

5 hours ago, IamNoone88 said:

We are all suffering and have received no help for our businesses. Not a single Sitang. 

What's a Burmese river got to do with it ?

[khunPer]

6 hours ago, kimamey said:

Well presumably they pay tax on profits. It's true that all businesses have ups and downs but this is unprecedented. A lot of governments have provided help for businesses badly affected by lockdowns including Thailand as far as I know and it seems to allude to this when it says that promised funds couldn't be accessed. I don't know whether this account is genuine so he may be just trying it on or he may have good point.

Taxes work different. If you have a loss then you can deduct the loss in future income, a government don't pay your loss, or part of it, in cash.

[khunPer]

7 hours ago, Espanol said:

Yes. Name for that is "taxes".

In tax system, you can deduct a loss in future income, a government don't pay your loss, or part of it, in cash.

[Somtamnication]

The PM has to approve the payment. It ain't happening, Jethro!

[BritManToo]

18 hours ago, khunPer said:

Hotels all over the World suffers from lack of business due to Covid, that's how it is! And that's part of the risk when operating a business for gaining profit; do the hotel owner mentioned here also send similar part of his profit to the government during good years?

I'm not sure governments deliberately closing all hotels was a predictable business risk. It's never happened before, and it's totally unnecessary.

The hotels aren't allowed to make income, but the banks holding their mortgage is. How can that be allowed to happen?

 

Surely the government should stop all associated business from operating at the same time? No hotel trade, no bank interest, no utility fees, no taxes, no rents would be more equitable.

Edited July 13, 2021 by BritManToo

[khunPer]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I'm not sure governments deliberately closing all hotels was a predictable business risk. It's never happened before, and it's totally unnecessary.

The hotels aren't allowed to make income, but the banks holding their mortgage is. How can that be allowed to happen?

 

Surely the government should stop all associated business from operating at the same time? No hotel trade, no bank interest, no utility fees, no taxes, no rents would be more equitable.

There are lots of unpredictable business risks.

 

And banks actually did reduce interest rates and issued "loan payment holiday" to to support small and medium-sized enterprises, re. Bank Of Thailand.

 

If you have no income, or negative income, you don't pay tax; furthermore both annual statements and payment of taxes have been postponed due to the pandemic.

 

Some companies gain, and some companies lose, that's how free market works; i.e. for example transport sector, including food deliveries, and online sales have gained through the pandemic, whilst airlines and tourists sector are among those loosing turnover. The ones in major problems seems to be the ones that already had a tight economy, or negative bottom-line, before the pandemic; i.e. THAI to mention a local company.