National oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc has decided to allocate 3 billion baht to the fast-dwindling Oil Fuel Fund, following its months-long support of the diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) price subsidy programmes.
The PTT board resolved to grant the money yesterday as a debate on the government's controversial plan to collect a windfall tax from oil refineries to inject more money to the fund remains unsettled.
The tax will be imposed on part of the oil refinery margin.
Auttapol Rerkpiboon, president and chief executive of PTT, said the decision aims to support the state's attempts to lower people's cost of living.
The company will give 1 billion baht each month from July to September, he said.
The Oil Fuel Fund Office will discuss later whether the money will be spent on controlling the retail prices of diesel or to pay the debts incurred by the fund, which has already run up losses of 105 billion baht.
Last year, PTT gave financial assistance worth 14.8 billion baht to help people cope with higher energy prices through a range of projects including capping the price of compressed natural gas for taxi drivers and giving a discount on LPG, which is used as cooking gas, for social welfare card holders.
Mr Auttapol said PTT also helped the country by increasing its crude oil reserves during the energy price crisis.
Earlier, energy authorities asked PTT to help the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) relieve its 60-billion-baht financial burden incurred by Egat's measures to alleviate rising living costs.
PTT, the sole gas seller in the country, decided to postpone for another four months Egat's gas purchase payment worth 13 billion baht which was due in May.
