General news

          The Energy Regulatory Commission of Thailand (ERC) has resolved to delay its plan to collect the fuel adjustment tariff (FT) at a new rate of 30 satang per unit, to help Thai families cope with rising daily expenses.

 

 

          ERC Chairman, Mr. Direk Lavansiri said the new rate will be delayed until June – August this year. The decision to postpone the new rate, the Chairman said, was due to public concerns over the rising cost of living and higher electricity consumption in summer.

 

          As a result, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) will have to shoulder higher excess cost, which will climb up from 10 to 14 billion baht. Mr. Direk, however, insisted that the new FT rate is still lower than the true cost of FT charge, which is 57.45 satang per unit.

 

          The FT charge is an additional cost incurred on the bill and changes according to the oil price. The ERC Chairman said the reason why the FT charge has not been adjusted for quite some time was that the ERC wanted to return to consumers the investment money saved by the country’s power producers namely EGAT, the Provincial Electricity Authority and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority.

 

          During 2008-2010, the three units spent 3.08 billion baht lower than the investment target. Besides, about 1.4 billion baht was saved due to the temporary natural gas delivery cut from Myanmar during April 8-18, this year, the ERC Chairman added. Those amounts of money are used to help keep the FT rate at 30 satang per unit.

 

May  11,  2012
Thai Financial Post