BANGKOK, 31 August 2011 – Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan is working on energy price restructuring to reflect the global energy prices, and on energy credit cards to help shoulder the burden of low-income earners.
The minister elaborated that the cut in Oil Fund levy is a short-term solution to reducing the living cost of people and that the next step is to restructure the energy price structure to reflect prices in the global market.
Mr Pichai stated that the energy credit card is now in the design process, adding that energy prices will be subsidised for low-income earners and people working in the public transportation sector such as motorcycle taxi, van, and taxi drivers.
The minister has assigned the PTT Plc to study the energy credit card policy. PTT Senior Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy Nuttachat Charuchinda is in charge of this issue, thanks to his experience in oil and natural gas retail business and information on energy users on hand.
Mr Nuttachat, however,admitted that there are some problems relative to the policy because people in the said professions, which include over 10 million motorcycle taxi riders, have not clearly registered with authorities; making it difficult to determine the number of credit cards needed and the amount of subsidies required.
