Diesel tax soon to be reinstated

Diesel tax soon to be reinstated

Anusorn Sangnimnuan (right), president of Bangchak Petroleum, and Nobuyuki Murahashi, president of Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand), launch an E85-compatible Mitsubishi sedan at a Bangchak petrol station off the Ekamai-Rarm Intra Expressway. TAWEECHAI TAWATPAKORN

The government will soon reinstate the diesel tax, as oil prices have stopped spiking, says Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan.

The exact time frame for collection and the tax rate were not revealed.
The previous government cut the excise tax on diesel from 5.31 baht a litre to half a satang in May and waived municipal tax of 53.1 satang to honour its policy of keeping the price below 30 baht a litre.
Mr Pichai said a huge subsidy for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by the state Oil Fund in the transport sector could also be terminated.The move comes after the previous Abhisit Vejjajiva government already agreed on a gradual float of the LPG price in the industrial sector.
The transport and industrial sectors account for 25% of LPG consumption, the household sector 44% and petrochemicals 30%.
"We don't want oil consumers to be spoiled children who are not concerned about energy saving," said Mr Pichai.
Ironically, he said his first action in his new position would be to suspend collecting levies on premium petrol (benzene 95) and regular petrol (benzene 91) for six months. This would reduce the price of premium petrol by 7.50 baht a litre and regular petrol by 6.70 baht a litre.
Mr Pichai earlier said the Oil Fund would again collect fuel levies once the public was earning more as a result of government economic policies.
The minister said another urgent action for the ministry is to revise the country's power development plan (PDP).
The PDP is now being reviewed by the Energy Ministry in line with the global economic meltdown, and the new one is expected to be finished within the next two months.
The existing plans focus on coal-fired plants and nuclear power.