"Lowering the price while global prices are on the rise could also lead to low efficiency in fuel consumption," he said.

Viset said PTT's dividend was part of the national income and would be included in the national budget. Spending it for a particular purpose would require House approval, he said.

"It's better to let the market mechanism play its role," he said.

Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva also announced that income from cooking gas exports could be used to subsidise locally marketed gas.

But Viset said exporters were already subsidising local prices. Local gas costs no more than US$315 per tonne, while the global price is $547 per tonne.

Moreover, only 10-20 per cent of output is exported and only half of it

is produced by PTT. The price of cooking gas is now capped at Bt11 per kilogram, thanks to the Bt3 subsidy from the Oil Fund, said Viset.

As 90 per cent of fuel consumed in Thailand is imported, low consumption has been promoted by policymakers, who are concerned about a widening current account deficit as crude oil prices continue to soar.

As a way of ensuring higher efficiency and controlling the deficit, Bank of Thailand (BOT) economists want energy prices to reflect real costs.

Yunyong Thaicharoen, Jariya Premsin and Watsaya Limtham-mahisorn, economists from the BOT's monetary policy group, said at the bank's annual symposium yesterday the government should encourage the energy business to compete under an efficient market mechanism in order to boost efficiency in consumption.

They said retail oil prices were still much lower than those of other countries because Thailand's tax on oil was too low. The economists also warned that if Thailand continued to consume oil inefficiently, it would suffer from much higher current account deficits over the next five years.

According to the central bank's data, if the Dubai crude price remains at $71 per barrel, Thailand will record a current account deficit of 2.8 per cent of GDP in 2011. In the worst-case scenario, if the price reaches $80, the deficit will reach 3.8 per cent of GDP in 2011.

"The energy policy is focused too much on economic growth and ignores efficiency. The past policy made people expect help from the government all the time, which becomes a vicious cycle," Yunyong said. He questioned whether PTT's role as market leader in retail oil prices led to fair competition.