Trouble for the "Anutin Government"! A former head of the Office of the President of the Privy Council has filed a complaint demanding action over the duty-free contract amendment, which allegedly caused 180 billion baht in damages to the country.
On 20 August 2026, Admiral Phajunn Thamprateep, former head of the Office of the President of the Privy Council, and Mr. Chanchai Itsarasenarak, former Member of Parliament for Nakhon Nayok, submitted documents and evidence to Ms. Sirikanya Tansakul, a party-list MP from the People's Party, and Ms. Watanya Bunnag, in their capacity as members of the Ad Hoc Committee considering the draft Annual Budget Expenditure Act for the fiscal year 2027.
They requested an investigation into the case in which the board of directors of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited — or "the AOT Board" — passed a resolution to amend the duty-free concession contract and the commercial area management contract within airports. Mr. Chanchai stated that this has resulted in the state losing a combined total of approximately 180,000 million baht in revenue.
On this matter, Mr. Chanchai had previously submitted a complaint to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), requesting that it investigate and prosecute Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, the Cabinet, the AOT Board, and related officials in connection with the said contract amendment — a step he took on 3 April 2026.
The Cabinet meeting on 2 December 2025 resolved to acknowledge the NACC's recommendations and assigned the Ministry of Finance to hold consultations with the Ministry of Transport and the Office of the Attorney General.
Mr. Chanchai stated that as a result of the amendment to the concession contract and the commercial area contract in favour of a private company, the benefit returns that AOT would receive have been reduced by 18,021 million baht per year, which, over a period of 10 years, amounts to approximately 180,000 million baht.
Why did no one at the AOT Board meeting raise any objection?!
On 3 December 2025, AOT notified the Stock Exchange that the AOT Board meeting held on 2 December 2025 had passed a resolution approving the amendment to the duty-free concession contract and the commercial area management contract.
This raises the observation as to why such action occurred at the same time as the Cabinet was acknowledging the issues surrounding the contract amendment.
Mr. Chanchai also directed questions at Mr. Pakorn Nilprapan, the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for legal affairs, who attended both the Cabinet meeting and the AOT Board meeting, asking why there was no opposition or objection raised.
The reason Mr. Chanchai brought this matter before the Budget Committee for the 2027 fiscal year is that he views it as directly related to state revenue and the national budget, and therefore wants the committee to investigate why a state organisation amended a contract that is alleged to potentially cause the state to lose an enormous amount of revenue.
He also called for an investigation into the actions of the executive branch and the Cabinet — specifically, why, having already been made aware of the problem, no corrective measures or preventive action were taken to avert the damage.
Mr. Chanchai expressed hope that the Budget Committee would bring the matter before a full session for consideration, before reporting to the House of Representatives for acknowledgement and further investigative action.
If the matter remains unresolved within two months, he said he will move forward by mobilising the public sector to demand an investigation and to reclaim the benefits he believes the country is entitled to receive.
