Napapol Jirakul, Member of the Bangkok Metropolitan Council (Bangkok Noi District) and Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee for the Study of Green Line Mass Transit Project Issues, revealed to “Kaohoon” that today (October 12, 2025), he will report to the Bangkok Metropolitan Council meeting regarding the results of negotiations with BTS Group Holdings Public Company Limited (SET: BTS), as well as the committee’s resolution.
The committee, which he leads, has approved that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) should pay its outstanding debts to Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company Limited (BTSC), a BTS subsidiary. These debts pertain to operation and maintenance (O&M) fees for the Green Line extensions 1 and 2, with a total outstanding sum, including interest, of THB 32 billion.
Debt repayment is unavoidable since it is mandated by a final Administrative Court ruling, Napapol said. The process is extremely urgent, as interest accrues at a daily rate of THB 5.4 million. Therefore, the council needs to expedite this process as quickly as possible to minimize the losses incurred by the BMA.
The forthcoming BMA payment will cover debts up to August 2025, totaling over THB 32 billion. Of this amount, roughly THB 12 billion relates to court-litigated arrears for Extensions 1 and 2 (June 2021 – October 2022), while the remainder, approximately THB 20 billion, has yet to become the subject of litigation.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt will propose a budget appropriation from the city’s reserves to the council on September 17 (first agenda), postponed from the original date of September 10, to facilitate repayment to BTS.
The main reason for the delay, as explained, is that BMA’s time deposits have not reached the 6-month term required, and waiting would prevent the city from losing out on roughly 4% interest. However, Napapol argued that this postponement could not justify the higher interest expense of over 8% currently being accrued on the debt.
He expects that on September 24, the matter will proceed to the second and third agenda discussions in the council, after which the resolution will be published in the Royal Gazette. Debt repayment is then expected to be completed within October 2025, per the agreement with BTS, in exchange for a reduction in the interest rate from MLR+1 (about 8%) to MLR (about 7%).
Surapong Laoha-Unya, CEO of MOVE and BTSC, told “Kaohoon” that the postponement in presenting BMA’s budget appropriation is unlikely to affect the overall timeline, and expected that repayment could still be completed before the deadline of October 31.
Regarding the still-uncertain government policy on the “20-baht flat fare” for all Green Line stations, Surapong stated that he believed the delay stemmed from the government’s lack of complete information, and that it would be prudent to wait until the new government had commenced official duties.
Meanwhile, negotiations between BTSC and the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) over the revenue sharing for the 20-baht flat fare have been temporarily paused by MRTA, which is waiting for clearer government policy guidance.
BTS are not affected by the delay in the 20-baht flat fare project—its operations remain normal, Surapong said. Still, if implemented, this scheme would further encourage the public to shift to mass transit.
