Oil Fund move means motorists must wait
Motorists will see their fill-up costs falling more slowly than global oil prices, as they will have to contribute more to the Oil Fund so it can pare down its debt load more quickly.
Starting today, the Oil Fund levy on premium petrol goes up by Bt0.70 per litre to Bt3.20, on regular petrol by Bt0.70 to Bt3, on diesel by Bt0.20 to Bt1.15 and on gasohol to Bt1.24. The move will boost the fund's revenue by Bt740 million a month or Bt8.88 billion a year. "We are set to repay the Oil Fund's debts within one year, from the original deadline of two years, but it depends on the contributions to the fund as we can raise these only when global oil prices are low so that the increase does not hurt consumers," Boonsong Kerdklang, deputy director-general of the Energy Ministry's Energy Policy and Planning Office, said yesterday. The fund needs Bt25 billion more a year to pay off early the Bt60-billion debt used to finance the previous government's policy of subsidising pump prices of petrol and diesel. The increases in the Oil Fund levy come after the ministry earlier this week raised the contribution ceiling to Bt4 from each litre of oil sold by retailers. The higher levies will soon be reflected in retail prices. High oil prices have dampened fuel demand. Diesel consumption in the first nine months of this year fell 7.8 per cent from the same period last year, from 54.7 million litres a day to 50.4 million litres. Last month, diesel consumption was at its lowest level this year - 45.6 million litres. In the same period petrol consumption weakened 2.2 per cent, from 20 million litres on average last year to 19.6 million. Panich Phongpirodom, director-general of the Energy Business Department, said the drop in petrol consumption was partly due to the government's campaign promoting natural gas for vehicles. In the first nine months, natural gas consumption rose 56.5 per cent to 9.8 million cubic feet a day from 6.3 million last year. Almost 21,7000 vehicles are equipped to use natural gas. Gasohol consumption now averages 3.5 million litres a day, accounting for 17.8 per cent of total petrol consumption. The lower demand pushed down crude-oil imports during the first nine months by 1.3 per cent on year, from 851,000 barrels a day to 840,000 barrels. However, by value imports rose 23.4 per cent to Bt591.24 billion. In the same period Thailand earned Bt145.68 billion from crude-oil and refined-oil exports, an increase of 33.7 per cent on year. Energy Reporters The Nation
|
