Energy/energy subsidy measures

Chatrudee Theparat

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered to allocate the central budget to stabilize energy price such as diesel oil prices below 33 baht per liter if the Oil Fuel Fund is insufficient in a bid to ease the burden of people from soaring energy price.

Mr Settha said the government will continue to curb diesel oil price to no more than 33 baht per liter. The government will allocate the budget from the central budget to subsidize diesel oil price if the Oil Fuel Fund is not sufficient.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin

He said the cabinet gave a green light to 3 measures including a control diesel ceiling to no more than 33 baht per liter, 423 baht for a 15kg cylinder, and freezing electricity costs to help vulnerable groups to 3.99 baht per unit for a month.

The government is burdened with a budget of approximately 8.3 billion baht for three measures.

The cabinet approved measures to ease people's cost of living in energy with 3 measures. The first is to freeze the price of diesel fuel not exceeding 33 baht per liter, taking effect between April 20 and July 31, 2024. Its subsidy will cost 6 billion baht.

The second is to freeze the price of LPG cooking gas by fixing the price at 423 baht per 15-kg cylinder, effective between April 1 and June 30, with 500 million baht of subsidy.

Lastly, the measure will help vulnerable groups who use no more than 300 units of electricity per month. They are eligible for 3.99 baht per unit from the current electricity price of 4.18 baht per unit. It will take effect in the period of May-August 2024, which will cover 17 million households nationwide. Also, the government plans to allocate 1.8 billion baht from the central budget for emergency cases to support this measure.

The Ministry of Energy proposed the cabinet to use the central budget from emergency and necessary reserves to help reduce the burden of the Fuel Oil Fund. The fund is currently contracted at 100 billion baht.

Chalermphol Pensoot, director of the Budget Bureau, said that relieving the people burden with measures during this period will come from the central budget. The contribution for electricity costs for vulnerable groups is approximately 1.8 billion baht. The measure to subsidize diesel oil and LPG will use the budget from the Fuel Oil Fund.