Petition to challenge electricity price policy

Consumer rights activist Srisuwan Janya will petition the Administrative Court to issue |an injunction over the government's electricity price policy which he sees as unfair to consumers.

Srisuwan, who is president of the Anti-Global Warming Association, claimed the Cabinet on December 27 decided to lower the threshold of those entitled to free electricity support from 90 units per month to 50 units, passing on the burden of higher electricity prices to a wider field of electricity consumers.

The Yingluck Shinawatra Cabinet, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and three other related bodies will be named in the petition, Srisuwan added.

Srisuwan said the decision by the Cabinet was tantamount to an irresponsible populist policy that added burden on others and constituted dishonest and discriminatory treatment of people who use more electricity.

Groups who have to shoulder this added cost include general consumers as well as businesses and industries. Srisuwan claimed yesterday that electricity prices had risen in many areas since July. He said deep-freezing businesses in Songkhla province saw a 30-per-cent per unit rise in electricity costs, while in Ranong province the increase was 58 per cent; and in Chantaburi province 28 per cent.

Srisuwan said many residents in flood-affected areas said their electricity bills had gone up despite the fact that many had abandoned their homes and had not consumed electricity. Srisuwan said these price hikes violated Article 30 of the 2007 Constitution that barred the government from engaging in discriminatory policy.

Besides calling for an emergency court injunction before any ruling is made on the electricity pricing policy, it also requested the court, if it found the government and related organisations guilty, to return all the amounts charged unfairly to consumers. The group is also seeking the court end discriminatory |treatment of all electricity consumers.