Tranche of ฿400bn public borrowing to fund fossil to renewable energy migration

The government plans to spend a tranche of the additional 400 billion baht public sector borrowing, authorised by an emergency decree, to support people who want to replace their traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles with electric vehicles and who want to install solar rooftops to cut their household electricity bills, according to PM’s Office Minister Paradorn Prissananantakul.

He said today that, of the 400 billion baht borrowed from domestic sources, 170 billion has already been spent to boost the economy impacted by the global oil crisis resulting from the war in the Middle East.

A large portion of the 170 billion baht has been used to fund the ‘Thai Chuay Thai Plus’ co-payment scheme and to help state welfare card holders.

For the remaining borrowing, he said state agencies, which want funding to implement projects to migrate from fossil fuel to clean and renewable energy, have been told to submit their projects to the screening committee for consideration.

For instance, he disclosed that the Transport Ministry had proposed a scheme to help public transport operators, such as taxi, bus and van drivers who want to replace their aging petrol or diesel vehicles with EVs, by arranging down payments for them to purchase the EVs on hire purchase.

Other agencies wanting to help households install solar rooftops, to reduce dependence on gas-generated electricity, have also been encouraged to submit their proposals, he said, adding that these proposed projects will not overlap with the projects already covered by the 2027 fiscal year budget.