Truckers planned to protest against the high diesel price early this week while the government spokesman told them the government was already capping the price; otherwise, it would have reached 34 baht per liter.
As the Land Transport Federation of Thailand planned to organize rallies of heavy trucks on Feb 7 and 8 to call for the ouster of Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow for the high diesel price, government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said the government was aware of problems and was capping energy prices.
The spokesman asked truck operators to understand present situations and said that diesel prices in neighboring countries mostly either exceeded 30 baht per liter or were close to the level except in Malaysia that was a petroleum producing country and had an oversupply of oil.
Unless the government had not capped the diesel price, it could have reached 34 baht per liter, Mr Thanakorn said.
Regarding truck operators’ longstanding demand for the diesel price to be limited at 25 baht a liter, the spokesman said that would cost the state as much as 20 billion baht a month or 240 billion baht a year and the government could not afford the financial burden.
The prime minister did not want to distort the market mechanism or create a budgetary burden for the country in the future, Mr Thanakorn said.
The government and the Energy Ministry were spending the state Oil Fund to subsidize the diesel price and limit it at 30 baht per liter, he said. (TNA)
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