Consumer Organizations Council reiterates the proposal. Solving the crisis of oil prices – LPG is expensive

From the current situation where oil prices and LPG or cooking gas prices have continued to rise and the government is trying to fix the prices by using the oil fund to compensate Causing the position of the oil fund to be negative more than 8,700 million baht until the government had to borrow up to 2-3 billion baht to manage the debt that occurred

Today (January 19, 2022), the Consumer Organization Council (Exam.) has organized a forum ‘Oil prices go up expensive cooking gas Consumers’ Epic Crisis’ to discuss and reflect on the issue of oil and cooking gas (LPG) price management, with two important proposals reinforced by the government as follows: One, cancel the price structure of domestically produced oil and LPG, but Referring to world market prices also add import costs which are artificial costs. as if all oil had been imported from abroad, and secondly, the oil tax was reduced to be fair to the people’s cost of living and the higher world fuel prices.

Itbun Onwongsa, Deputy Secretary-General of the Consumer Organizations Council. stated that fuel is an important factor in driving the country’s economy. Rising oil prices are a factor supporting products and services. more expensive At present, the domestic oil price is around 30-40 baht per liter for diesel, which is the fuel of the transportation sector. Even though the government has a policy to fix the price to no more than 30 baht per liter, the price is still higher than the price in neighboring countries like Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam around 2-4 baht per liter and 13 baht per liter more than Malaysia. Thailand’s transport sector therefore unable to compete with neighboring countries

Deputy Secretary of the Exam. caused by setting the price structure of the state based on the price of oil in the Singapore market, and also adding transportation costs as if imported from Singapore, despite the fact that Thailand has an oil refinery that can produce enough refined oil for domestic use Until now, there is still enough left to export.

As in the case of LPG gas, the Deputy Secretary of the Auditor General of Thailand gave information that at present, Thailand can produce up to 91% of LPG gas and import only 9% of the country’s total supply. Instead, the state imposed a price structure on refineries based on world market prices and added artificial freight as if they were all imported from Saudi Arabia. While LPG produced from the domestic natural gas separation plant, which has the lowest cost because it uses natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand as raw material, people do not have the opportunity to use it first. because it was almost completely used by the petrochemical industry group causing the people to bear the burden of such unfair expenses It is a price setting that prevents public access to natural resources. too beneficial to the group of investors and create a burden on the people

Rossana Tositrakool Public Service Subcommittee Energy and Environment Exam. He added that in determining the oil price structure, there were references to foreign prices that Such pricing is a historical reference price to attract early investors. due to insufficient Thai refineries But at present, Thailand can produce oil in large quantities until it can be exported and sold abroad. Therefore, there is no need to set the price structure in such a way.

“This is something we have always demanded that is unfair to the people. Because the refining of oil in the country causes air pollution. And it is one of the major causes of PM 2.5 dust, which we have to accept these pollutants. in exchange for having a refinery in the country But I have never used it at a price that is produced in the country,” said Rosna.
In addition to the artificial price structure as if it were imported There is another important factor that makes oil expensive. The government’s collection of excise taxes on oil at a high rate. During the past 7 years, the state has collected more than 200 billion baht in oil taxes per year. But I don’t see that the government uses the gas tax collected to subsidize or develop other mass transit services. to encourage people to use public transport in any way At present, it is the high price of crude oil in the world market. The government refused to lower the oil excise tax price, but instead used the money from the oil fund to support the price. As a result, an additional 2-3 billion baht had to be borrowed to be used to support oil prices. and may become a continuous loan that never ends

For solutions to problems, Rosana suggested that the Consumer Council’s Policy Committee Has already submitted recommendations to the government to solve the problem of high oil prices since August 9, 2021, but the government has not solved the problem. Therefore, I would like to reiterate the proposal that will cause the price of oil to fall and it is the part that is under the control of the state, namely the reduction of oil excise taxes. which will bring down the price of oil without having to use the oil fund that has a negative status to subsidize the price in any way and set the price of oil at the refinery according to the actual cost without transportation costs The cost is artificial as if it were being imported from Singapore as it is. This would be more beneficial to the people than giving out money as it is today.