Cabinet approves 8 moves to ease living cost crisis from fuel price

Existing measures scheduled to expire on June 30 will be extended and new ones added, said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

The eight measures are:

• Cap NGV price at 15.59 baht per kilo, discounted to 13.62 baht per kilo for taxi drivers, from June 16 to September 15.
• Gradually raise LPG price cap to 408 baht per 15-kilo canister in September, from 363 baht now. LPG price to increase three times between July 1 and September 30.
• Monthly 100-baht cooking gas subsidy for street vendors and state welfare card holders from July to September.
• Monthly 250-baht petrol subsidy for motorcycle taxi drivers.
• Instruct fuel retailers to cap diesel marketing fee at 1.40 baht per litre from July 1 to September 30.
• Ask oil refineries to contribute 8 billion baht per month from refinery margin to the Oil Fuel Fund for three months.
• Stimulate MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) tourism by allowing companies to claim tax relief on expenses from July 15 to December 31.
• Asking citizens, businesses and the transport sector to save energy.

Prayut said the government was doing its best to relieve hardship, especially for poor people and businesses, adding that he did not expect the fuel-price crisis to end soon.

He also asked government agencies to prepare long-term plans to deal with the rising oil price’s impact on energy and food prices.

Meanwhile, an Energy Ministry source said talks with oil refineries on their contribution to the Oil Fuel Fund have not yet concluded.

The source said refineries in which the government has a stake, such as Thai Oil, PTT Global Chemical, Bangchak Corporation and IRPC, will cooperate with the ministry on this issue.

"However, the contribution [from Thai oil refineries] would not be high," the source said, adding that intervening in the market to negotiate with foreign oil refiners “posed difficulties”.