Government to resubmit proposal to fund help with domestic power bills

The Thai government will resubmit its proposal to the Election Commission (EC) for approval of the allocation of about 11 billion baht from the Central Fund, to be used from May to August to ease the financial burden on household consumers of higher electricity bills.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said Saturday that he expects a positive response from the EC on Tuesday.

The EC rejected the proposal on Friday, on the grounds that it did not have the approval of the cabinet, and asked the Office of the Secretary-General of the Cabinet to amend and resubmit it.

The money requested is intended to help households which use less than 300 units of electricity per month between May and August.

Meanwhile, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the country’s major producer of electricity, said that its responsibility is to manage electricity generation using low cost fuel as a priority, to ensure that the public will be minimally affected by electricity charges.

EGAT spokesman Prasertsak Cherngchawano said that EGAT is buying electricity from independent producers at prices ranging from 2 to 9.85 baht/unit.

He added that the amount of electricity bought at 6.11-9.85 baht/unit constitutes only 7% of EGAT’s overall electricity production, adding the electricity generated using LNG is the most expensive, at 7.9-11.36 baht/unit.