Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered the Energy Regulatory Commission to postpone its planned increase in the cost of electricity next month, according to an informed source.
The ERC had intended to announce on Monday a new power tariff that would be the highest ever, to be effective from September to December.
The ERC had planned to raise the electricity charge from 4.00 baht to 4.72 baht per kilowatt-hour (unit).
The rate would include the fuel tariff of 0.93 baht per unit, up from 0.24 baht per unit, due to the increase in global energy prices and the cost of electricity generation, which depends significantly on imported liquefied natural gas.
Meanwhile, the cooking gas price rose by one baht per kilogramme on Monday to 393 baht for a 15 kilogramme cylinder, up from 378 baht per cylinder.
As the state Oil Fuel Fund is deeply in debt, the government is raising the local price of cooking gas by one baht per kilo per month.
The clost of LPG had been fixed at 318 baht for months before the government decided to increase it to 333 baht in April and then gradually rose to 363 baht in June.
The Oil Fuel Fund is116 billion baht in the red as a consequence of its subsidies for oil and cooking gas prices.
