Senate approves executive decree for Finance Ministry to guarantee oil fund loans
The Senate on Monday passed an executive decree that allows the Finance Ministry to provide loan guarantees of up to 150 billion baht to the Oil Fuel Fund.
The decree was approved by 187 senators while one voted against it and five others abstained.
The decree had secure a 239:166 approval in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Before the vote, Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow explained to the Senate that the Oil Fuel Fund needed the loans to gradually subsidise oil prices to prevent severe economic crisis.
He said Thailand was facing a double crises — increase in global oil prices and depreciation in the value of the baht — as a result the country was hit hard by very high oil prices.
Supattanapong said the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had averted the impact on the people by gradually subsidising oil prices.
He added that the government realises concerns about the subsidy distorting market prices and that is why it was doing it gradually.
He said the government also took into account the ability to repay the loans and the government also strictly observed fiscal discipline.
Explaining to the Senate, Pornchai Jirakulpaisan, director of the Office of Policy and Strategy of the Oil Fuel Fund Office, said the government had already approved the loan plan.
He said the first loan for the oil fund would be 30 billion baht and would be advanced this year while the remaining 120 billion baht would be borrowed next year.
Both loans would be repaid in instalments over seven years.
